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发帖数: 4825 | 1 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/world/asia/taiwan-vote-lures-
BEIJING — The only thing more striking than the $32,000 diamond-encrusted
eyeglasses on display at the Baodao Optical department store here is the
bronze statue of Chairman Mao that greets shoppers entering what is billed
as the world’s largest eyeglass emporium.
That is because Baodao Optical’s owners are from Taiwan, the island whose
governing party, the Kuomintang, fought a fierce — and losing — civil war
against Mao’s Communist forces before fleeing the mainland in 1949 with
more than a million refugees. The rival governments have yet to sign a peace
accord.
But by choosing to display Mao’s likeness and his famous credo “Serve the
People” so prominently, Baodao Optical reveals how far some Taiwanese
businesses will go to romance a Chinese market that many see as the
wellspring of their future prosperity.
Such gestures have become especially freighted as an estimated 200,000
people return to Taiwan for an election on Saturday whose outcome could
determine the future of a relationship that has warmed steadily since
President Ma Ying-jeou swept into office there in 2008.
Mr. Ma, of the Kuomintang, is facing a vigorous challenge from Tsai Ing-wen,
a low-key academic whose Democratic Progressive Party has long advocated
formal independence, a position that in the past inspired Beijing to lob
missiles into the Taiwan Strait. Polls suggest that the race is too close to
call, with a third candidate expected to draw around 10 percent of the vote
, largely from Mr. Ma.
The growing political heft of the Taishang, the name given to the million or
so Taiwanese in China who have staked their livelihoods on its expansive
economy, has become a point of contention in a race that has raised
existential questions about a Taiwan increasingly ensconced in Beijing’s
embrace.
Because Taiwan does not allow absentee balloting, Taishang executives have
been urging their compatriots to return home to vote, warning that a victory
for Ms. Tsai could anger Beijing and prompt it to yank back the welcome mat
. But Taishang business leaders have done more than exhort. They have
arranged for discounted plane tickets, pressed Chinese airlines and those
from Taiwan to add 200 flights and have offered their employees paid
holidays that coincide with Election Day, which falls just more than a week
before the start of the Chinese New Year.
When seats on regularly scheduled flights to Taiwan sold out, business
groups in and around Shanghai and Guangzhou organized charter flights. Terry
Gou, the chairman of Foxconn, an electronics manufacturing giant based in
Taiwan, is reportedly flying home 5,000 of his employees.
“Many Taishang weren’t that interested in the race, but when they saw how
close it was, they got very concerned,” said Lin Qingfa, chairman of the
Beijing Association of Taiwan Enterprises, a group that counts 300 companies
among its membership. “There is a feeling that if Tsai Ing-wen is elected,
cross-strait relations will suffer and so will our business opportunities.”
Ms. Tsai and her allies have cried foul, saying such efforts pander to the
Chinese Communist Party, whose overarching goal is to reunify Taiwan and
China, even if by force. Although the candidates are campaigning largely on
domestic concerns, among them stagnant incomes, a growing wealth gap and
evaporating jobs, Ms. Tsai has also cast her opponent’s pro-Beijing
policies as a first step to selling out Taiwan’s sovereignty.
Bi-khim Hsiao, vice president of the New Frontier Foundation, a research
institute financed by the Democratic Progressive Party, said efforts to sway
the election went beyond arranging half-price flights. Ms. Hsiao said
mainland officials were visiting Taiwanese-owned factories and pressuring
businessmen to vote for Mr. Ma, an accusation Kuomintang officials reject.
“In the past, each time the Chinese attempted to interfere in our elections
it backfired,” she said, alluding to the 2000 race, when Beijing’s
warnings of “bloodshed” helped produce a narrow victory for the pro-
independence candidate Chen Shui-bian. “This time is no different,” she
added. “We are confident not all Taishang will vote for Ma.”
Analysts and business leaders agree, estimating that 70 percent to 80
percent of Taiwanese who live and work in mainland China are backing Mr. Ma.
Analysts and business leaders agree, estimating that 70 percent to 80
percent of Taiwanese who live and work in mainland China are backing Mr. Ma.
But their numbers could be pivotal, especially if there is a repeat of 2004
, when Mr. Chen was re-elected by a margin of fewer than 30,000 of the 13
million votes cast.
“These business tycoons and Taishang who have benefited from the relaxation
of cross-strait ties are clearly motivated this year,” said Chen-shen Yen,
director of the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi
University in Taipei. “They appear to be voting for their pocketbooks, not
with their hearts.”
For business owners at least, the benefits of playing ball with Beijing are
hard to deny. Direct flights have turned a daylong odyssey into a 90-minute
puddle jump. In 2010, Taiwan’s exports to China hit a record $115 billion,
up 35 percent from a year earlier. And Mr. Ma’s détente opened the door to
mainland tourists, with more than three million of them arriving since 2008.
If the experience of Baodao Optical is any indication, cultivating the
Communist Party establishment has its rewards. Since 1997, the chain has
opened more than 1,000 stores across the mainland, with 2,000 more on the
drawing board, executives say. By contrast, the company has 300 shops on
Taiwan, whose population of 23 million is comparable to Shanghai’s. “There
’s not much more expanding we can do at home,” said Keri Chang, the
company’s marketing director for northeast China. “Our future is here.”
Like a good many Taiwan expatriates, Ms. Chang, 40, has strong feelings
about the status quo, which means another four years of Mr. Ma and his
nonconfrontational ways. When she first arrived here as a college student in
1999, she recalled, she was hectored by students and teachers who accused
her of seeking to split the motherland by pursuing an independent Taiwan.
These days, her mainland Chinese friends and colleagues are mostly filled
with admiration. They sidle up to her and gab about Taiwan’s pop culture
and fashion, and speak longingly about its democracy and uncensored news
media. “They mostly want to imitate us,” she said.
The admiration appears to go both ways. Cai Zhisheng, 38, a sales manager at
the store, said his first year in China had helped chip away at the ugly
stereotypes he held about China. Like many Taiwanese, he thought mainlanders
were rough-edged, backward and cold. “But what I’ve found is most people
are not uncivilized or impolite,” he said. “In fact, people are really
friendly, especially when they find out I’m Taiwanese.”
But even Taiwanese who have done well are having second thoughts about
getting too close. Tavanic Yantun, a senior marketing manager at Adidas,
suspects that Beijing is seeking to manipulate Taiwan into submission, a
prospect that grows more likely as Taiwan’s economy and that of its giant
neighbor become interdependent.
Since the onset of the global financial crisis, he has watched as scores of
well-paying jobs in Taipei have disappeared. Last year, he was lured to the
mainland by an irresistible pay increase. “I had never been to China until
the job interview,” he said.
The experience has been largely positive. He, too, has been warmed by the
enthusiasm of Chinese colleagues who can recite dialogue from Taiwanese
television. Others quietly ask him to bring back banned history books. But
he is also frustrated by their insistence that Taiwan is an inalienable part
of China. “Even well-educated friends are brainwashed when it comes to
Taiwan,” he said. “I worry one day we might have to give up our freedoms.”
With a few days before the election, Mr. Yantun said he was still undecided.
Should he vote for the continued reconciliation championed by Mr. Ma or the
wariness advocated by Ms. Tsai? “I guess I’m torn between my own
selfishness and the future of Taiwan,” he said. |
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