Martian2
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The views of young Taiwanese (e.g. "people in their twenties or early thirties") on Chinese reunification are extremely important. They are the next generation of leaders. When the elder generation dies from old age, Taiwan will belong to today's young people.
Gilbert B. Kaplan: Letter from Taiwan: 100 Million Manufacturing Employees Next Door
"Gilbert B. Kaplan
Former Deputy Assistant and Acting Assistant Secretary of the U. S. Department of Commerce
Posted: December 29, 2009 01:05 PM
Letter from Taiwan: 100 Million Manufacturing Employees Next Door
...
Taiwan prides itself on being a merger of Chinese, Japanese and Western culture. There is definitely a feel of all three in the country. The United States used to have a special relationship with the small state, though that has definitely faded. Now, for Americans, perhaps the most important thing about Taiwan is what its younger generation is saying. Speak to people in their twenties or early thirties, and they basically have given up on resisting China. They think the game is over and that it would be better to simply merge in some way with the mainland. This marks a dramatic shift from about ten years ago, when one engineer I was working with on Taiwan said "China, we hate China. We don't want to have anything to do with them. They are so poor." The mainland was viewed as backward, uneducated, and politically oppressed. Now the concern is almost the reverse.
Most young people believe there will be no future without being part of China. Some talk about a merger into China in 50 years. The standard of living on the mainland, long much lower than in China, is catching up. In the Shanghai region, most often compared to Taiwan, the yearly GDP per capita is within several thousand dollars. Yes, there is a catch. Ask a young Taiwanese what they think about freedom of speech and political rights, clearly denied in China as made strikingly clear by the eleven year sentence given to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo last week. They shrug, "yes, those are important, but..." And then it seems hard for them to finish the sentence. They usually get around to saying, with some hesitance, that economic prosperity and economic security are more important than "rights," and, anyway, what can they do about the inexorable march of "progress."
It probably will not take 50 years for China to take over Taiwan, and China would probably not put up with the situation for that long. Now will they have to. China's business model is working against Taiwan, as it is working against the rest of the world, but faster and more effectively. The de facto merger is occurring, in part, as a result of industrial relocation into China by the major Taiwanese manufacturers, the companies that had comprised much of the Taiwan "economic miracle" of the 1980's and 90's. China, flush with money from it's aggressive mercantilist trading strategy, has provided a host of incentives to Taiwanese companies, making them offers they can't refuse. The Chinese have created special government run industrial parks just for Taiwanese companies. They have created an entire section in their laws on providing incentives to the Taiwanese to build-up industries within mainland China. And they have a special set of grants and benefits they give to what they call "off-shore" Chinese who are bringing their companies back to China. Coupled with benefits on the cost of labor, almost every Taiwanese company comes knocking on China's door."
Gilbert B. Kaplan: Letter from Taiwan: 100 Million Manufacturing Employees Next Door
"Gilbert B. Kaplan
Former Deputy Assistant and Acting Assistant Secretary of the U. S. Department of Commerce
Posted: December 29, 2009 01:05 PM
Letter from Taiwan: 100 Million Manufacturing Employees Next Door
...
Taiwan prides itself on being a merger of Chinese, Japanese and Western culture. There is definitely a feel of all three in the country. The United States used to have a special relationship with the small state, though that has definitely faded. Now, for Americans, perhaps the most important thing about Taiwan is what its younger generation is saying. Speak to people in their twenties or early thirties, and they basically have given up on resisting China. They think the game is over and that it would be better to simply merge in some way with the mainland. This marks a dramatic shift from about ten years ago, when one engineer I was working with on Taiwan said "China, we hate China. We don't want to have anything to do with them. They are so poor." The mainland was viewed as backward, uneducated, and politically oppressed. Now the concern is almost the reverse.
Most young people believe there will be no future without being part of China. Some talk about a merger into China in 50 years. The standard of living on the mainland, long much lower than in China, is catching up. In the Shanghai region, most often compared to Taiwan, the yearly GDP per capita is within several thousand dollars. Yes, there is a catch. Ask a young Taiwanese what they think about freedom of speech and political rights, clearly denied in China as made strikingly clear by the eleven year sentence given to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo last week. They shrug, "yes, those are important, but..." And then it seems hard for them to finish the sentence. They usually get around to saying, with some hesitance, that economic prosperity and economic security are more important than "rights," and, anyway, what can they do about the inexorable march of "progress."
It probably will not take 50 years for China to take over Taiwan, and China would probably not put up with the situation for that long. Now will they have to. China's business model is working against Taiwan, as it is working against the rest of the world, but faster and more effectively. The de facto merger is occurring, in part, as a result of industrial relocation into China by the major Taiwanese manufacturers, the companies that had comprised much of the Taiwan "economic miracle" of the 1980's and 90's. China, flush with money from it's aggressive mercantilist trading strategy, has provided a host of incentives to Taiwanese companies, making them offers they can't refuse. The Chinese have created special government run industrial parks just for Taiwanese companies. They have created an entire section in their laws on providing incentives to the Taiwanese to build-up industries within mainland China. And they have a special set of grants and benefits they give to what they call "off-shore" Chinese who are bringing their companies back to China. Coupled with benefits on the cost of labor, almost every Taiwanese company comes knocking on China's door."
