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June 16, 2000 VOL. 29 NO. 23 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK

Between China and Taiwan
Cross-strait tensions roil a delicate relationship
By TODD CROWELL and YULANDA CHUNG Hong Kong

The ascent in Taiwan of President Chen Shui-bian and his pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party has sparked serious tensions with China. Less evident, but no less real: the political watershed is also roiling ties between the island and Hong Kong. Just weeks after a mainland official based in the special administrative region (SAR) warned local media against providing platforms for Taiwan independence, another Beijing representative has chimed in. He is He Zhiming, vice director for Taiwan affairs at China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong, formerly the Xinhua News Agency. Local businessmen, he said recently, should steer clear of Taiwan companies that back independence for the island.

"Individual leading business figures [in Taiwan] have, on one hand, openly supported independence, while on the other hand obtained advantages from their economic activities on the mainland," said He. "This is absolutely not permitted." He did not specify which businesses, although the bosses of several, including the Chi Mei plastics group and the Evergreen transportation group, are well-known Chen backers. Hong Kong's top officials quickly rebuked He for interfering in local affairs and overstepping the bounds of "one country, two systems." Said Chief Secretary Anson Chan: "Business decisions are best left to businessmen and should not invite interference by any official of whatever status." Politics should never be allowed to interfere in commercial transactions, she added. Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa secured a pledge from He's boss, Jiang Enzhu, that the Liaison Office "would not interfere with business here."

Shortly before Hong Kong's handover in July 1997, Beijing enumerated six "taboos" on Taiwan-related matters in the SAR. Mostly, they had to do with engaging in political activities or displaying national symbols, such as using the designation "Republic of China." The Taiwan community in Hong Kong, with some 20,000 Taipei passport holders, made adjustments. Public celebrations of Taiwan's Oct. 10 National Day ceased, and the island's official emblems were no longer openly displayed.

In many ways, Hong Kong's return to China made it almost inevitable that the SAR's ties with Taiwan would come under strain. As the showcase for "one country, two systems," Beijing's model for future reunification with the island, Hong Kong sometimes draws barely disguised hostility from Taipei officials. At the height of the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98, Taiwan-sourced rumors repeatedly had it that the Hong Kong dollar's stabilizing peg to the U.S. greenback was about to crumble. And last year, Liu Tai-ying, a top aide to then president Lee Teng-hui, publicly threatened to lob missiles at the SAR should China use military force against Taiwan.

Things have become even testier since Chen Shui-bian's election. Many political figures in Taiwan are contemptuous of what they see as Tung Chee-hwa's devotion to Beijing's line, noting the chief executive's repeated assertions of the "one-China" principle during his April visit to North America. For their part, left-wingers in Hong Kong continue to criticize Lee Teng-hui as the "godfather of Taiwan independence." And after Chen's election, Hong Kong Constitutional Affairs Secretary Michael Suen Ming-yeung suggested that the island's democracy was riddled with corruption. Leung Hon-wa, founding member of the pro-Taiwan 123 Democratic Alliance in Hong Kong, senses the heightened tensions. The China Liaison Office used to invite his group for casual tea-and-chat sessions. "But the last one, a couple of months ago, was like an indoctrination session. Officials wanted anti-independence pledges," he says.

The clearest example of the disconnect between the two sides is the ongoing controversy over the appointment of Taiwan's unofficial ambassador to the SAR, Chang Liang-jen. Since his nomination in January, Taipei has claimed that Hong Kong authorities, pressured by Beijing, had not granted him a work permit to enter the territory. Then it emerged that Taipei had not even submitted a formal application. It said that Hong Kong was setting unreasonable demands.

The bone of contention is the SAR's demand that Chang abide by the "one-China" principle and relinquish all official Taiwan posts. Hong Kong says that his predecessor, Cheng An-kuo, readily signed such a pledge when the territory was under British rule (and when "one China" was official Taiwan policy, under the Kuomintang). Taipei complains that Hong Kong has imposed stricter criteria, compared with British days. But even in 1995, it took Cheng An-kuo more than six months to get his work permit.

So what of the latest row? Does He's statement reflect merely the view of one mainland cadre, perhaps over-eager to show he is on the correct side of a burning national issue -- or something more? Says Leung of the 123 Alliance: "The trade warning is the latest, but it won't be the last." Whatever the truth, the episode is the latest pointer to Hong Kong's increasingly uncomfortable position as political temperatures rise across the Taiwan Strait.


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