Chinese rhetoric is becoming dangerously real for Taiwanese people

Calls to condemn Taiwan’s “aggressors”, the point of reporting them and punishments that could include the death penalty for “leaders of leaders” – Beijing’s usual anti-Taiwan propaganda is becoming dangerously real.

The democratic island has grown accustomed to China’s claims. Even planes and ships testing their defenses have become commonplace. But recent moves to criminalize its support are worrying Taiwanese people living and working in China, and those returning home.

“Right now I’m planning to speed up my departure,” said a Taiwanese businesswoman based in China – this happened shortly after the Supreme Court introduced changes that allow imprisonment and the death penalty for those guilty of advocating Taiwan’s independence.

“I don’t think that’s making a mountain out of a molehill. The line is now not very clear,” said Prof Yu Jie, a legal scholar at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica.

China’s Taiwan Information Office was quick to assure Taiwan’s 23 million people that this was not aimed at them, but at “a very small number of independence activists”. “The majority of our Taiwanese people have nothing to fear,” the office said.

But conservative Taiwanese say they don’t want to test that claim. The BBC spoke to a number of Taiwanese living and working in China who said they planned to leave soon or had already left. Few were willing to interview them on the record; no one wants to be named.

“Any statement you make now can be misinterpreted and you can be reported. Even before this new law, China was already encouraging people to report one,” said the businessman.

That was made official last week when Chinese authorities launched a website identifying Taiwanese considered separatists to “die hard”. The site has also included an email address where people can send “clues and crimes” about those named, or anyone else they suspect.

Scholars believe Beijing is hoping to emulate the success of Hong Kong’s national security laws, which it has said are necessary for stability – but have undermined the city’s democratic movement as former lawmakers, activists and ordinary citizens critical of the government have been jailed under them. .

By making pro-Taiwan sentiment a matter of national security, Beijing hopes to “sever the organization’s ties with the outside world and divide Taiwanese society between those who support Taiwan’s independence and those who do not,” said Prof Chen, a legal scholar. at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica.

He says the direction from the Supreme Court will likely lead to the prosecution of some Taiwanese living in China.

“This idea has been sent to all levels of law throughout the country. So this is a way of saying to them – we want to see more cases like this prosecuted, so go get it.”

“We have to be more careful,” said a Taiwanese man based in Macao. He said he had always been prepared for threats, but the new legal guidance had his friends “expressing concern” about his future in the Chinese city.

“In recent years, patriotism education has been popular in Macau, as assertive statements about Taiwan have created a more tense atmosphere compared to pre-pandemic times,” he added.

Taiwan, which has powerful allies in the US, the EU and Japan, rejects Beijing’s plans for “reunification” – but there are growing fears that China’s Xi Jinping has accelerated the timeline for taking over the island, an apparent goal of the Chinese Communist Party. .

For more than 30 years, Taiwanese companies – iPhone maker Foxconn, chip giant TSMC and electronics behemoth Acer – have played a key role in China’s growth. Prosperity also brought Taiwanese people from across the sea who were looking for jobs and bright prospects.

“I really liked Shanghai when I first moved there. It felt much bigger, more exciting, more crowded than Taipei,” said Zoe Chu*. He spent more than a decade in Shanghai managing foreign artists who were in high demand in clubs and urban areas in China.

This was in the mid-2000s when China was booming, attracting money and people from all over the world. Shanghai was at the center of it – bigger, shinier and more advanced than any other Chinese city.

“My friends in Shanghai used to criticize Beijing. They called it the great valley in the north,” Ms. Chu recalled. “Shanghai was the place to be. It had the best restaurants, the best nightclubs, the coolest people. I felt like such a secular person, but I learned quickly.”

At the end of that decade – in 2009 – more than 400,000 Taiwanese lived in China. By 2022, that number had dropped to 177,000, according to Taiwan’s official statistics.

“China had changed,” said Ms. Chu, who left Shanghai in 2019. He now works for a medical company in Taipei and has no plans to return.

He explains: “I am from Taiwan. “It’s no longer safe for us there.”

Immigration to Taiwan is driven by the same factors that have pushed so many foreigners to leave China – a sluggish economy, the growing hostility between Beijing and Washington and, above all, i sudden shutdowns and sweeps during the Covid pandemic.

But Taiwanese people in China were also worried because the government does not see them as “foreigners”, making them vulnerable to oppression by the state.

Senior Taiwanese officials told the BBC that 15 Taiwanese citizens are currently being held in China for various alleged crimes, “including violations of the anti-secession law”.

In 2019, China a Taiwanese businessman went to jail of espionage after being caught taking pictures of police in Shenzhen – a charge he denies. He was even released last year. In April 2023, China confirmed that it did the Taiwan-based publisher was arrested “to endanger the security of the country”. He is still in custody.

Amy Hsu*, who has lived and worked in China, says she is afraid to even visit because of her work. After returning to Taiwan, he started volunteering at an NGO that helped people who had fled Hong Kong to settle in Taiwan.

He says: “It is very dangerous for me now. “In 2018, they started using cameras to monitor people who are really good at jaywalking and the system could recognize your face and send a fine directly to your address.”

He says the level of surveillance has disturbed him – and he worries it could be used to track even tourists, especially those on the do-it-yourself list.

“Well, I’m definitely on the list. I am an independent person [guy] with many ideas,” laughs Robert Tsao, the 77-year-old tech billionaire, who founded one of Taiwan’s largest chip manufacturers, United Micro-electronics Corporation (UMC).

Mr Tsao was born in Beijing, but today supports Taiwan’s independence and avoids not only China, but also Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and Singapore.

Mr Tsao has not always been hostile to China. He was one of the first Taiwanese investors to set up advanced chip manufacturing plants in China. But he says the attack on Hong Kong changed his mind: “It was free and healthy and now it’s gone.” And they want to do the same to us here.”

He says: “This new decision helps people like me. He believes it will backfire, increasing the determination of the Taiwanese people to stand up to China.

“They say the new law will only affect a few staunch independence supporters like me, but most Taiwanese support independence or the status quo. [keep things as they are]which is the same, so we have all become criminals.”

* Names have been changed at the request of contributors