Gov’t blasts Beijing as tycoon drops independence stance

Stunned by the abrupt denunciation of Taiwan independence stance by Chi Mei Group founder Hsu Wen-long, government leaders yesterday lambasted China’s coercing and started the search for new countermeasures. Yet some others commended the industry leader for speaking the truth.

In an open letter issued Friday, Hsu stressed that he supports the Anti-Secession Law enacted by Beijing. He also explained that his ancestors came from southern China and claimed that both Taiwan and China are parts of “one China.”

He added that any move to seek Taiwan independence will lead the nation to war and bring disaster to people on the island.

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Vice President Annette Lu said that China must have prepared the text and make Hsu to simply place his name on the statement.

She said people in Taiwan should carefully review the investment risks in China because there will probably many more will be forced to sign similar “confessions” like the one issued by Hsu.

The vice president revealed that a local “supertycoon” asked her in late 2000 not to talk about the cross-strait relations.

With 40 percent of his business operations in China, the “supertycoon” asserted that China always “clutch us by the neck” whenever the vice president made statements about the bilateral ties, she said.

Lu stressed that investors in China must realize that “Taiwan owes them nothing” and the investors should face the risks on their own instead of blaming the government here.

She said the investors’ request for opening the direct links in trade, transport, and postal services across the Taiwan Straits does not make any sense at all because they never consider what costs the 23 million people in Taiwan have to pay.

Hsu’s case should serve as a wakeup call for all Taiwanese investors in China, she said.

Lu, who just returned from another visit to Central America, said investments in that area will not only help spur economic development there but will also free investors from the control of China.

Premier Frank Hsieh said Hsu is only a private citizen and his statement does not represent the government stance.

Cabinet spokesman Cho Jung-tai said that Hsu’s remarks show that some Taiwanese investors in China could have been forced to make certain statements.

He promised that the government will give them greater assistance to back them up.

Officials from the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the top government agency in charge of Taiwan’s China policy, said that they are still gaining an understanding of why Hsu wrote his open letter and the motives behind his publication of the letter on the eve of the largest protest in Taiwan history Saturday against the Anti-Secession Law.

Legislator Wang Shin-nan of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that Hsu could have recently faced the pressure of seeing “his whole family wiped out.”

Otherwise, Wang said, it is impossible for Hsu to issue such an open letter.

Legislator Trong Chai, also of the DPP, called for the government to work out policies to prevent the “Taishang” — Taiwan businessmen operating in China — from being pushed to alienate Taiwan but take side with China under the threat of the Anti-Secession Law.

Chai warned that Hsu’s sudden change in his anti-Taiwan independence stance might trigger an “avalanche effect” among the Taishang community in China since the businessmen may do anything to protect their money-making operations in China.

+ Chai quoted intelligence from the MAC as indicating that as long as the Taishang are labeled by Beijing as “pro-independent” or “pro-Taiwan,” they can be sure of having “irrational” taxes levied by the Chinese authorities or of having their factories or companies investigated by tax officials without warning.

The Chinese authorities can easily accuse Taishang of violating the Anti-Secession Law, Chai added.

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