Political factors are behind the fines in the Far East
The Xinhua News Agency of the Communist Party of China reported on November 22 that law enforcement inspections in five provinces and cities including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hubei, and Sichuan found that the chemical fiber textile and cement enterprises invested by Far East Group existed in environmental protection, land use, employee occupational health, and production safety. Violation of regulations, fines and recovery of taxes of about 474 million yuan, and the recovery of the company’s idle construction land.
On the evening of November 22, the spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Communist Party of China, Zhu Fenglian, said in response to a reporter’s inquiry, “We will continue to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Taiwanese compatriots and Taiwanese enterprises in accordance with the law. “It’s a matter of eating and breaking the pot.” Zhu Fenglian declared again on the 24th, “Never allow anyone or any company to make money on the mainland while providing financial assistance to diehards of “Taiwan independence” as benefactors.”
At this sensitive moment, the chairman of Far East Group Xu Xudong expressed his opposition to “Taiwan Independence” and supports the “One China Principle” and the “92 Consensus” on November 30th. The relevance of this is self-evident.
In this regard, Tsai Mingfang, a professor at the Department of Industrial Economics of Tamkang University, believes that if Chairman Xu Xudong’s submission to the media is an explanation of the Far East’s fines by the Chinese Communist government, it can be inferred that Chairman Xu believes that the fine was due to political factors. , Rather than the environmental pollution, labor conditions or fire safety issues pointed out by the Chinese Communist government.
The President of the Republic of China Su Zhenchang also said that the CCP is arrogant, does not understand democracy, pluralism and respect, and attempts to surround politics with business will be cast aside by the world.
In fact, the Far East had been inspected by the Chinese Communist Party’s law enforcement agencies one after another in May. Why was it disclosed by the Chinese Communist Party authorities after half a year of smoldering? A Taiwanese businessman who has invested in the mainland for more than 20 years told the Central News Agency that the five provinces and cities have jointly imposed fines on the Far East Group. “It’s not really going to bring down the Far East, but through this move to make other Taiwanese businessmen feel pressure.” Since the Far East Group was punished last week, the Taiwanese business community has more or less a “chilling effect”, “although privately We will talk about this incident, but there will be no and no need to make a public statement.”
The Far East became a political sacrifice flag for which?
According to the analysis of “Today’s Weekly”, a company that “is far away from Taiwan independence” was smashed by China. The chairman of the board also personally explained its political stance for the article, which inevitably caused a wave of waves in the industry and even had a chilling effect. Lin Bofeng, chairman of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, said frankly that after this incident, Taiwanese businessmen doing business in mainland China will inevitably be more cautious about the recipients of donations for the 9-in-1 election next year.
Before the nine-in-one local elections will be held in Taiwan next year, Taiwanese businessmen have once again become a tool for the CCP to manipulate Taiwan’s elections, and the Far East Group has become the CCP’s flag.
The Far East Group has a huge business map and has many businesses that frequently negotiate with the government. Xu Xudong, who is in charge of the group, has maintained good interaction with those in power. But Xu Xudong, who was born in Shanghai, has always advocated the Taiwan government to improve cross-strait relations and use the Chinese market to drive economic growth. Therefore, Xu Xudong once supported the former President Ma Ying-jeou (KMT)’s “92 Consensus” and the “Cross-Strait Peace Agreement” propositions, and also provided 10 million yuan in political donations from the Kuomintang presidential candidate Han Yu. However, the donation list of President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party cannot find a record of the donation of the Far East Group.
Xu Xudong’s Far East Group is not the top-ranked enterprise group in Taiwan, but he has almost become Taiwan’s largest political donator in the past 10 years.
“Today’s Weekly” analyzes that although at the presidential level, Xu Xudong prefers the Kuomintang, which can maintain a friendly atmosphere across the strait, the “investment” or “betting” of political donations is not entirely influenced by ideology. It can be seen that Xu Xudong’s attitude towards political trends Acuity.
Taking the 2012 legislator election as an example, Far East Group provided political donations for 45 legislator candidates with a total donation of NT$47.8 million, of which KMT candidates received 30.3 million yuan, and DPP candidates received 14.5 million yuan. The ratio is close to the number of seats captured by the parties in Congress that year. However, with the growth and decline of the blue-green landscape, of the 58 million yuan donated by Far East Group to 47 legislators in 2020, nearly 70% went to the DPP candidates, and the KMT only received 28%.
“Today’s Weekly” pointed out that how could the CCP easily let go of this political donation account. The overseas edition of the People’s Daily criticized the Far East Group’s political donations, “Businessmen pay attention to harmony and make money. Under normal circumstances, two-sided bets may be excusable, but if one of the businessmen’s support is engaged in activities to split the country, Then not only will it violate moral standards, but it will also risk breaking the law… In the face of national territorial sovereignty and national justice, there is no possibility of betting on both sides and no one is allowed to commit crimes!”
“Today Weekly” reported that another senior manager of the Far East Group revealed that in April this year, Taoyuan Neili, the Far East International Convention Center, which was designed and built at a cost of 10 billion yuan, held a groundbreaking ceremony. Xu Xudong invited Taoyuan Mayor Zheng Wencan and Economic Minister Wang Meihua , Culture Minister Li Yongde co-hosted; in May, the Far East’s business entities in mainland China were successively inspected by law enforcement agencies. Therefore, internal speculation was that the gathering of DPP political officials and tomorrow’s stars was an offense to the CCP. The official fuse.
Social Commentary: In the end even Xu Xudong was “Taiwan Independence”
In Taiwan, almost no one would regard Xu Xudong and his Far East Group as a “Taiwan independence enterprise.” The editorial of “Shang Bao” pointed out that in the past year, the CCP has manipulated laws and regulations everywhere under the pretext of exploitation. For example, China’s Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, and JD.com have almost no big Chinese companies. It’s just that domestic companies can still ask for “joint prosperity” in the name of “common prosperity.” As for Taiwanese businessmen, if they put a crime of “Taiwan independence” and ask them to clarify themselves, I’m afraid it’s the means to ask them to “join the national crisis”. .
In Mainland China, whether or not it is “Taiwan independence” is not up to oneself to decide. According to the analysis of the “Shang Bao” editorial, for the Communist Party, the charges of placing the Far East Group as a “Taiwan Independence Enterprise” are multiple actions. One can pump oil and water to fight the autumn wind, and the other can create chills and execute punishments. Third, there are still people in Taiwan. Complaining about bad cross-strait relations, Taiwanese businessmen have suffered, and repairing the DPP government by the way is a win-win business. However, Taiwanese companies that still stay in mainland China and do their work diligently must think clearly: What kind of “strike” method does the regime use in the future when it says it will “precisely strike”? The so-called dangerous states do not enter, and chaotic states do not live in. In these years, what kind of country is the place where you carry a lot of money to invest?
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