island’s young people until 2014. That year,
a group of protesters broke into Taiwan’s
Legislature and occupied it for 23 days to
block the passage of a new trade pact with
the mainland. The youth-led protest became
known as the Sunflower Movement, and
it made Chinese officials sit up and take
notice. If unification were still to happen
peacefully, then they needed to get young
people on board.
“The mainland government started to
care more about Taiwanese youth in 2014,”
says Zheng Zhenqing, an associate profes-
sor of Taiwan studies at Tsinghua University
in Beijing. “It was a turning point.”
With Taiwan struggling to jump-start its
sluggish economy, Beijing has resorted to
one of its most common tactics: trying to use
its economic clout to buy influence. And it’s
not only going after budding entrepreneurs.
Last year, China’s Education Ministry said it
would relax entrance rules for Taiwanese at
mainland universities, and Fujian province,
where Fuzhou is located, announced plans
to recruit 1,000 Taiwanese academics to
teach at its universities by 2020.
The mainland’s campaign has started to
raise alarms in Taipei. Nearly 60 percent of
Taiwanese working overseas were employed
in China in 2015, according to statistics re-
leased by the Taiwanese government last
year. Desperate to stem the flow of talent,
Tsai’s administration is pushing back.
“Some council members said that young
people in Taiwan set great store on democ-
racy and freedom, which is exactly what the
environment in mainland Chinese society
cannot provide,” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs
Council said in a statement released March- “The government can strengthen and
show off Taiwan’s advantages, and help
young people understand the possible risks.”
On top of the brain drain, Taipei has
struggled to compete with an increasing-
ly powerful China in diplomacy. Only 20
countries still formally recognize Taiwan,
which is officially known as the Republic
of China. Panama ended its relationship
with Taiwan last year. The Vatican could
be next, as the Holy See and Beijing move
closer to a historic deal on the appointment
of bishops in China.
Since separating from the mainland at
the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949,
Taiwan has become a vibrant democracy.
The island is functionally independent, and
many of its 23 million people want to keep it
that way. Opinion polls conducted last year
show that 70 to 80 percent of Taiwanese
prefer autonomy over unification. Tsai has
said that she wants to maintain the status
quo, despite her party’s long history of fa-
voring formal independence.
Yet Chinese leaders remain suspicious
of Tsai, who has refused to endorse the
“one China” principle under which Tai-
wan is considered a part of China. As re-
lations between the two continue to sour,
some experts warn that Beijing’s economic
campaign and growing hostility could back-
fire. Richard Bush, a senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution and former head of
the American Institute in Taiwan, says Xi’s
authoritarian tendencies have disheartened
young Taiwanese.
“The general social and political envi-
ronment in China is bound to affect the way
they think about any sort of political union
between Taiwan and the mainland,” Mr.
Bush says. “One could argue that the direc-
tion Xi Jinping has taken China will make
Taiwanese much more loyal to their own
democratic system, for all its problems.”
Liu Zongxin, a Taiwanese golf instructor
in Fuzhou who’s in his late
20s, doesn’t consider himself
to be very political. When
asked about China-Taiwan re-
lations, he says he just wants
the status quo to stay in place.
He sees no other option.
Mr. Liu moved to the
mainland in 2016 to open
a golf school with his older
brother. He says adjusting to
life here hasn’t been too dif-
ficult. His biggest complaint
is when locals try talking to
him about unifying Taiwan
with China. Unfortunately for
him, such conversations are
happening more and more
frequently. It’s the same ev-
ery time.
“First they talk about our
president, then ask about
my position, and then they
talk about unifying Taiwan
by force,” Liu says. “When
I hear that, I want to leave.”r Xie Yujuan contributed to
this report.‘One could argue that the
direction [President] Xi
Jinping has taken China
will make Taiwanese
much more loyal to their
own democratic system,
for all its problems.’
- Richard Bush,
senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
IN FUZHOU, CHINA: Liu Zongxin, a Taiwanese golf instructor, takes a swing at the training center he opened
with his older brother. Mr. Liu moved to the mainland in 2016. XIE YUJUAN/THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITORFOCUS MAINLAND CONTROL
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