Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Laika ac/CC BY-SA 2.0
CONTROVERSY HAS broken out after news reports of Chinese United Front outreach to Taiwanese teachers.
In particular, the trips would have brought Taiwanese teachers to Xinjiang for an eight-day, seven-night trip with all expenses paid, outside of a 4,000 NT fee.
Among the stops on the trip would have been Xinjiang’s capital of Urumqi, as well as several educational institutions. This would include a vocational school in Beitun, as well as Shihezi University. Xinjiang Want Want Foods would also be a stop, with Taiwan’s Want Want Group known for its pro-unification stances, and its efforts to advance such views in Taiwan through media outlets it acquired in past years such as the China Times and CtiTV. Want Want Group founder Tsai Eng-meng has made no secret of the fact that his aim in acquiring such outlets was to promote positive views of China in Taiwan.
The Mainland Affairs Council has framed China as aiming to establish “nodes” in which teachers can propagate pro-CCP talking points. Indeed, one notes that subsidized trips to China are a long-established tactic of China’s United Front, aiming to extoll the benefits that Taiwanese could receive with unification. Of course, the version of China that Taiwanese are taken to see is a highly curated one, designed to convey positive perceptions.
It has been more common for Chinese outreach to Taiwan by way of trips to Xinjiang specifically to be to Taiwanese Indigenous who would be, after all, framed as “ethnic minorities” in China’s framework of ethnic relations. As Taiwanese Indigenous, who have traditionally voted KMT, might be dissuaded from doing so by reports of the persecution faced by Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the aim would be to dispel such concerns.
Targeting teachers specifically as a demographic is of note, in that teachers would of course educate young people in Taiwan. Beijing is probably firmly conscious that young people have overwhelmingly turned against it, in line not only with identity trends, but because of awareness of China’s actions in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and elsewhere. This is why educators would be a particular target demographic.
This is perhaps not so similar to how China has turned toward influencers as another means of influencing young people, aware that young people often get information not from the news, but from influencers. However, educators would influence young people at a far more direct level, in classrooms.
It is to be seen if such efforts are taken up by any educators. Educators are considered public servants in Taiwan, as a result of which they face restrictions that private citizens may not in their travels. In this sense, it is also to be seen what measures the Lai administration rolls out to deal with the issue. The timing of the initiative may be in the wake of the passage of China’s ethnic unity law, though it is still unclear to what extent the ethnic unity law is directed at Taiwan.