Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: pedist/WikiCommons/CC BY 2.0
A PROPOSED BILL by KMT Matsu legislator Chen Hsueh-sheng has come under fire from the pan-Green camp. The bill would allow Chinese companies to place tenders on public infrastructure projects on outlying islands of Taiwan. The bill would also lift limits on enrollment for Chinese students in universities in the outlying islands of Taiwan, without any quota.
The bill was compared by DPP legislator Puma Shen to the Cross-Strait Services Trade Agreement (CSSTA) that stoked controversy in the series of events that led to the 2014 Sunflower Movement, though Shen stated that the bill was “worse” than the CSSTA. Namely, the bill would allow Chinese companies to bring workers and equipment to the outlying islands of Taiwan. Taiwanese companies would also be permitted to bring Chinese workers and equipment to outlying islands. The DPP has accused this of endangering restricted areas in Kinmen, but also serving as a means of bypassing restrictions on Chinese workers in Taiwan. DPP legislator Wang Ting-yu has accused the bill of being a “Trojan Horse” for Chinese investment. The Mainland Affairs Council has also taken a stance against the bill.
The timing of the bill is notable, taking place after increased maritime contention between Taiwan and China around Kinmen. The Chinese Coast Guard has increased its activities around Kinmen since a February incident in which a Chinese vessel intruded in Kinmen territorial waters and collided with a Taiwanese Coast Guard vessel while attempting to flee from it, resulting in the deaths of two Chinese fishers. Subsequently, one has seen the search of a Taiwanese civilian ferry in February, as well as the seizure of a fishing vessel earlier this month, which was brought to Fujian after being intercepted by the Chinese Coast Guard.
Nevertheless, the Chinese government seems to have signaled that it intends to use Kinmen and other outlying islands of Taiwan as a lever for economic influence over Taiwan. This occurred, for example, by way of the Chinese government declining to allow for group tours to Taiwan to resume except for in Matsu, following a visit to China by a delegation of 17 KMT legislators led by party caucus convener Fu Kun-chi in April that included Chen in its delegation, as well as Kinmen legislator Chen Yu-chen. Chen Hsueh-sheng seems to be following up on what may have been China’s signaling to the KMT.
Photo credit: BreakdownDiode/WikiCommons/CC BY-SA 4.0
Indeed, Chen’s bill is perhaps similar to Fu Kun-chi’s wide-ranging infrastructure proposal for eastern Taiwan, in that infrastructure is to be used as a means of expanding political influence. Yet this is here an effort to open outlying islands to Chinese economic influence, which was already substantial when group tourism from China to Taiwan still took place.
Concerns have long been raised regarding the infrastructure dependency of outlying islands of Taiwan on China, such as with regards to water and electricity sourced from China, in that this would make it easier for China to conduct an invasion if it were able to cut off such resources to outlying islands in wartime.
Yet this has not prevented pan-Blue politicians from calling for the construction of infrastructure to link Taiwan and China by way of outlying islands in the past. One case in point would be TPP chair Ko Wen-je’s proposal for a bridge to be built between Kinmen and Xiamen in the past. Ko claimed that electricity, water, and resource shortages would be solved through the construction of such a bridge, but the idea was similarly criticized as a Trojan Horse by the DPP.
Likewise, Ko was accused of echoing Xi Jinping’s 2019 calls in a speech for “New Four Links” to be established between Taiwan and China, which would be electricity, water, and gas, and a physical bridge. Xi was echoing the “Small Three Links” established between outlying islands of Taiwan and China in 2001, consisting of postal, transportation, and trade links.
It is to be seen whether there are strong reactions to Chen’s proposal in Taiwan, which as a whole may care less about matters involving outlying islands. Yet the bill comes at a time in which the KMT is accused of expanding legislative powers as part of a power grab and circumventing legislative oversight to do so, making it possible that the KMT will try to ram the bill through the legislature. If so, this would be likely to provoke pushback from the public.