FOCUS MAINLAND CONTROL
FUZHOU, CHINAO
n a recent Tuesday morning, as
President Xi Jinping delivered a
speech at the closing of China’s
annual legislative session in Bei-
jing, Wen Liwei was at work in this coast-
al city 1,000 miles away. He was too busy
meeting with business partners, discussing
market strategies for his health food com-
pany, to pay any attention to it. Besides, his
office doesn’t have a television.
Had Mr. Wen watched the address, he
would have heard Mr. Xi issue a thinly veiled
threat against his homeland, Taiwan, the
democratically governed island that Bei-
jing views as a breakaway province. “Any
actions and tricks to split China are doomed
to failure,” Xi said before the nearly 3,
members of the National People’s Congress,
adding that any such attempts “will meetwith the people’s condemnation and the
punishment of history.”
It was a stern warning at a fraught time
for Taiwan. Relations with China have been
tense since 2016, when Tsai Ing-wen from
the pro-independence Democratic Progres-
sive Party was elected president. Yet they’ve
become especially hostile in recent weeks
because of a new law passed in Washing-
ton that encourages official, high-level vis-
its between the United States and Taiwan.
China has never renounced the use of force
to reunify Taiwan with the mainland, and
on March 21, the Global Times, a state-run
nationalist newspaper, went as far as to urge
Beijing to “prepare itself for a direct military
clash in the Taiwan Straits.”
Wen, who’s in his late 20s, prefers not to
think about the rising tensions. He’s more
concerned with sales plans than geopoli-tics. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t affected
by the decisions made in Beijing. Chinese
officials consider young Taiwanese a key de-
mographic to win over as they seek to bring
the island under the mainland’s control, a
mission for which attitudes and income may
be as powerful as intimidating fighter jets
and naval drills.
With Xi having recently tightened his
grip on power, some experts warn that heChina is using some carrots so it’s easier for Taiwanese to invest,
study, and work on the mainland. BY MICHAEL HOLTZ / STAFF WRITERBeijing’s bid to win over young Taiwanese
XIE YUJUAN/THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITORWHY IT MATTERS
Beijing’s military might is a key tool
in its quest to reunite Taiwan with the
mainland. But Taiwanese views of the
mainland matter, too, and young peo-
ple’s attitudes about China may matter
most of all.ENTREPRENEUR: Wen Liwei moved to Fuzhou, China, after graduating from one of Taiwan’s top universities, eager to start his own company.V NEXT PAGE