03-Jan-2020
Chinese mainland charms Taiwan youths with start-up incubator
By Liu Wenbo
A start-up incubator on the outskirts of east China's Jiangsu Province is laying out sweeteners for budding entrepreneurs from Taiwan, including office space, business registration, legal consulting and tax preference.
Best of all, it's free.
"We moved into the Kunshan Business Incubator in Jiangsu Province in March 2016. After three years of incubation, we developed from one employee to a medium-sized technology company with 1,500 square meters' production plant.
We have also obtained 17 patents," said Ye Junshen, the founder of the Hanshengda Transmission Technology, which benefited from the assistance of the start-up incubator.
The company received financing of 10 million yuan earlier this year, after which they moved into a local industrial park and started mass production with the help of the incubator.
The center, formally called the Kunshan Business Incubator for Cross-straits Youth, is part of China's efforts to back Taiwan's young entrepreneurs. Provinces and cities on the Chinese mainland are rolling out favorable investment policies to help these youths establish their own businesses in a slew of sectors, especially technology-intensive industries.
Kunshan Business Incubator for Cross-straits Youth. /Photo via Taiwan Affairs Office of Jiangsu Province
There are 76 cross-Strait youth employment and entrepreneurship bases throughout the country set up by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council (TAOSC) to bolster young people from Taiwan to weave their entrepreneurial dreams on the mainland, which stand out by offering consultation, financial assistance, as well as preferential measures including tax deductions, expert advice and lectures given by successful entrepreneurs to new arrivals on how to run a business.
Struggle in starting a business on the mainland
"Taiwan youths are generally unfamiliar with the laws and regulations of the Chinese mainland and are not adaptable to many normative systems, even failing to complete basic licensing procedures," noted Zhuo Qiang, operating officer of the Kunshan Business Incubator for Cross-straits Youth.
The toughest hurdle facing young people in starting a business is docking with the mainland market, namely the consumer market and the capital market. Due to lack of marketing knowledge, most Taiwan youths have no idea how to manage a brand, write a business plan or even establish a business model. The acceptance for products and prices on the mainland are also a far cry from those in Taiwan.
A coffee bar indside the Kunshan Business Incubator for Cross-straits Youth./ Photo via Taiwan Affairs Office of Jiangsu Province
Besides, faced with a vastly different commercial environment and business logic on the Chinese mainland, there are a lot of uncertainties over whether their products and pricing strategy can be accepted by local consumers. While the older generation of Taiwan entrepreneurs have an upper hand in manufacturing, they are not sophisticated enough to bolster the young businessmen as most start-ups fall under emerging industries which requires innovation and idea.
Young people from Taiwan should not count on cheap land and lower labor costs on the Chinese mainland to plunge into labor-intensive sectors as is the case for years, said Wang Jianmin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Taiwan Studies, in an interview with China News Service. "They need to adapt to new circumstances and innovate."
Purpose of cross-Strait entrepreneurship bases
"Projects accepted by the entrepreneurship base will be observed for six to eight months after they come in, and will later be reviewed by relevant government agencies. Enterprises passing reviews can enjoy independent office space, subsidies, low-interest loans, and even support from angel investors," Zhuo said, adding that the incubator will act as a pimp for the Taiwan youths.
The Kunshan Business Incubator has an open office plan with signboards of companies working there. No conditions are placed on companies intending to register at the incubators.
An interior view of the office area at the Kunshan Business Incubator. /Photo via Taiwan Affairs Office of Jiangsu Province
In addition to providing a conducive environment and one-stop entrepreneurial services, they also provide specific services like business registration, financial and taxation consultation, patent services, legal consultation, and human resources.
"At present, we can provide the following six assistance to young entrepreneurs from both sides of the Taiwan Strait," said Zhuo. "First-class hardware facilities, excellent service environment, preferential policies, powerful mentor lineup, top R&D service platform, and professional operation team. These six services have shored up both entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial projects," he elaborated.
Zhuo said the Kunshan Business Incubator started operations in July 2015 with a total area of 25,000 square meters, and is among the first national-level cross-Strait youth entrepreneurship bases. The incubator has introduced and cultivated 129 cross-Strait youth entrepreneurship projects by July 2018, of which Taiwan projects accounted for more than 70 percent, absorbing an investment of 310 million yuan.
As of April 2019, 76 cross-Strait entrepreneurship bases and pilot sites had been set up on the Chinese mainland. They serve some 2,000 Taiwan-funded enterprises and teams, providing internships and jobs for nearly 10,000 Taiwan youths. In addition there are 70,000 Taiwan youths participating in all sorts of exchange activities, TAOSC spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang went on record to say at a regular news briefing in April.
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Taiwan youths increasingly come to study in Chinese mainland
Updated 10:21, 03-Jan-2020
By Yu Jing
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Read more: Crossing the Strait: Taiwan scholars who teach in Chinese mainland
For 24-year-old Wu Yuting from Taiwan, trying to decide between Peking University and graduate schools in Taiwan didn't take long.
"It is really easy for students from Taiwan to apply for top colleges in the Chinese mainland, e.g. Peking University and Tsinghua University. All you need to do is fill in the online application, send your documents, and all instructions are laid out clearly online," said Wu.
The 24-year-old, who is now studying at the School of International Studies at Peking University, considers the school her home. After her one-year study in Beijing, and with multiple internships in companies in the Chinese mainland in her "baggage," she has now set her mind to applying for jobs on the mainland to test out her ability in the job market.
According to the latest statistics from the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council,
more than 12,000 students from Taiwan are studying in higher education institutions in the Chinese mainland by the end of 2019. The number in 2018 was five times higher than that in 2017 
, signaling a greater interest among the youth in Taiwan for higher education in the mainland.
A man holds his resume as he seeks job vacancy information via his smartphone at a job fair in Beijing, China. /AP Image
Recent years' policy supports
Behind the jump in the number of students from Taiwan in the Chinese mainland is the government's steady push to lower academic entry thresholds to encourage more applications from the southeast China's island region.
In 2010, the Chinese Ministry of Education started to allow Taiwan students to use the score they obtained in the island's college entrance examination for application in the mainland universities. Initially, only those who scored among the top 12 percent were allowed to apply. That later expanded to 25 percent and last year, the top 50 percent were all eligible.
In addition, in 2017, China's Ministry of Education started to grant scholarships to bachelor, master and PhD students from the island studying in universities and research institutes in the Chinese mainland. In the last three years, more than 7,000 Taiwan students were among the recipients of national-level government scholarships.
On top of more scholarships being available to students from Taiwan, the annual fees at mainland universities are also more affordable compared with universities in Taiwan.
In 2005, Taiwan students studying at mainland universities were allowed to pay the same tuition fee and boarding fees as their mainland peers. The annual tuition for undergraduates at Peking University costs around 5,300 yuan (761 U.S. dollars) which is much cheaper compared with the annual fee in the University of Taiwan, where the lowest tuition stands at around 3,300 U.S. dollars.
"My spending in Peking University for an entire year is equivalent to my one-month expenses in Tokyo," said Chris Hung, a graduate student from Chengchi University from Taiwan who went to Peking University for an exchange program. He later went to Waseda University in Japan for further studies.
Peking University campus. /VCG Photo
In search of better academics and employment opportunities
Though Hung's time at Peking University was not long – four months – he spoke highly of the program and its faculty. "Most of the classes I attended are of smaller size, and the reading materials assigned are more comprehensive and in-depth than classes in Taiwan," he said, attributing his ability to catch up with his studies in Waseda to his time in Beijing.
"It is only when I started in Peking University that I formed the habit of reading English-language research materials," he added.
In comparison, starting salaries for graduates in Taiwan have stalled since the late 1990s. According to a survey done by Grassroots Influence Foundation in Taiwan, around 60 percent of the 1,100 respondents said the employment opportunities in Taiwan are lacking. Around 50 percent said if possible, they would go to the Chinese mainland for employment or entrepreneurship.
A logo of Alibaba Group is seen at the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, east China. /Reuters Photo
What has been particularly notable in recent years is the boom in internet business in the Chinese mainland, which dwarfs that of Taiwan. Home to 206 tech unicorns, in such field as e-commerce, electric car and healthcare industries, China is on its way to overtake Silicon Valley as the world's tech hub, leading to the hiring boom and wage growth for graduates willing to work in the field.
A few months to go before her graduation, Wu said she is determined to work in internet companies in the Chinese mainland after she finishes her studies. During her previous internship at ByteDance, one of China's top tech innovators, she said she learnt tremendously from the company's way of management and the lessons learnt would be beneficial for her future plan to open up a business in the mainland.
"For those with career ambitions, opportunities in the mainland are much more available. If you are willing to work hard, you can reach the height that is unimaginable in Taiwan," said Wu.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-01-...udy-in-Chinese-mainland-MVlC0fZkVq/index.html
