MCLC: Taiwan vote lures back expatriates

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Taiwan vote lures back expatriates
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (1/11/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/world/asia/taiwan-vote-lures-back-expatri
ates-in-china.html

Taiwan Vote Lures Back Expatriates in China
By ANDREW JACOBS 

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 world¹s largest eyeglass emporium.

That is because Baodao Optical¹s owners are from Taiwan, the island whose
governing party, the Kuomintang, fought a fierce ‹ and losing ‹ civil war
against Mao¹s 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 Mao¹s likeness and his famous credo ³Serve the
People² 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
Beijing¹s 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.

³Many Taishang weren¹t that interested in the race, but when they saw how
close it was, they got very concerned,² said Lin Qingfa, chairman of the
Beijing Association of Taiwan Enterprises, a group that counts 300
companies among its membership. ³There is a feeling that if Tsai Ing-wen
is elected, cross-strait relations will suffer and so will our business
opportunities.²

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 opponent¹s pro-Beijing
policies as a first step to selling out Taiwan¹s 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.

³In the past, each time the Chinese attempted to interfere in our
elections it backfired,² she said, alluding to the 2000 race, when
Beijing¹s warnings of ³bloodshed² helped produce a narrow victory for the
pro-independence candidate Chen Shui-bian. ³This time is no different,²
she added. ³We are confident not all Taishang will vote for Ma.²

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.

³These business tycoons and Taishang who have benefited from the
relaxation of cross-strait ties are clearly motivated this year,² said
Chen-shen Yen, director of the Institute of International Relations at
National Chengchi University in Taipei. ³They appear to be voting for
their pocketbooks, not with their hearts.²

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, Taiwan¹s exports to China hit a record
$115 billion, up 35 percent from a year earlier. And Mr. Ma¹s 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 Shanghai¹s.
³There¹s not much more expanding we can do at home,² said Keri Chang, the
company¹s marketing director for northeast China. ³Our future is here.²

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 Taiwan¹s pop culture
and fashion, and speak longingly about its democracy and uncensored news
media. ³They mostly want to imitate us,² 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. ³But what I¹ve found is
most people are not uncivilized or impolite,² he said. ³In fact, people
are really friendly, especially when they find out I¹m Taiwanese.²

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 Taiwan¹s 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. ³I had never been to China
until the job interview,² 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. ³Even well-educated friends are brainwashed when it comes
to Taiwan,² he said. ³I worry one day we might have to give up our
freedoms.²

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? ³I guess I¹m torn between my
own selfishness and the future of Taiwan,² he said.

Edy Yin contributed research.