Beijing slaps $14m fine on Far Eastern for Taiwan donations; WTA suspends tournaments in China & Dutch criminal complaint filed against Nike, Patagonia on PRC forced labor -- China Boss News 12.06.21
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Beijing slaps $14m fine on Taiwan's Far Eastern Group for Taiwan donations
The Chinese government fined Taiwan's Far Eastern Group (FEG) nearly $14 million last week for environmental, safety, and other violations - but "Chinese officials and state-backed media made clear the fines were connected to Far Eastern’s role as one of the biggest political donors to Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party,” Bloomberg said.
Financial Times said “the public rebuke of FEG, which is one of Taiwan’s best-connected companies in the mainland, has cast a chill through the taishang community” since the sprawling company which had “a network of 30 subsidiaries in mainland China, had a reputation for deftly handling its relations with the party.” “Taishang” (台商) is Mandarin for Taiwanese business firms in China.
FT:
FEG, which is known in Taiwan for its upscale department stores and has assets worth $85bn in 10 industries, was the biggest corporate donor in the past three general elections, according to analysis by Taiwanese outlet Tianxia. The group donated money to both the ruling Democratic Progressive party and the China-friendly Kuomintang party.
The case underlines the increasingly fraught environment that an estimated 1.2m Taiwanese working in China face as Beijing ratchets up economic and military pressure on the island, which the mainland claims as part of its territory.
“This is the most significant example to date of China going after Taiwanese companies with mainland operations,” said Chen Kuan-ting, head of the DPP-linked think-tank NextGen. “These companies risk becoming a political weapon for Beijing to attack Taiwan.”
Analysts and firms were caught off guard by Beijing’s sudden decision to go after the taishang. FT noted that “Beijing’s threat to go after companies with links to Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen also marked a significant escalation in its campaign to turn Taiwanese public sentiment against the DPP [Tsai’s Democratic People’s Party].”
FT:
While it was common for large companies in Taiwan to donate to both parties during elections, they usually avoided endorsing particular candidates and avoided cross-strait politics, said Dafydd Fell, an academic at the Centre of Taiwan Studies at Soas University in London.
By targeting Taiwanese companies, Fell said Beijing risked alienating its closest allies on the island and inadvertently fuelling support for the pro-independence government.
“The KMT would like to argue that closer economic integration is the answer for Taiwan’s economic problems, but China’s threats make that argument less convincing to voters,” said Fell.
In response to Beijing’s accusations, FEG Chairman Douglas Hsu wrote an op-ed in a pro-KMT newspaper “push[ing] back against claims he secretly backs the island’s formal independence from China,” Bloomberg analysts said.
Bloomberg:
Douglas Hsu, chairman of Taipei-based Far Eastern Group, said he opposes the notion that Taiwan is an independent country and is concerned about rising anti-China sentiment in Taiwan. In an opinion piece in the United Daily News Tuesday, he highlighted the importance of the Chinese economy to Taiwanese companies.
“With the political atmosphere as it is in Taiwan right now, public opinion leaves Taiwanese businesses feeling guilty when they invest in China,” he wrote. “It doesn’t need to be like this.”
“China has always been brutal. It doesn’t understand democracy, diversity or respect,” Su said. “We’ve seen many of China’s own wealthy businessmen suddenly disappear or be punished. This has even happened to their most beautiful celebrities.”
…“I, like the majority of Taiwanese, hope that both sides of the Taiwan Strait can maintain the status quo. I have always opposed Taiwanese independence,” he wrote. “In line with the U.S. and the international community, I support the ‘one-China principle.’”
But Taiwan-based business and political journalist Matthew Fulco took issue with Hsu’s statements on LinkedIn:
I am not sure Taiwanese businesses feel guilty so much as concerned. Politics is in charge in Xi Jinping's China, and taishang (台商) are increasingly in a no-win situation. If, like Hsu in this letter, they toe Beijing's line, they are criticized at home. If they do not, there are likely repercussions (potentially quite costly) for their China business.
Hsu's views are only partially in lockstep with the majority in Taiwan. This is a mainstream viewpoint: “I, like the majority of Taiwanese, hope that both sides of the Taiwan Strait can maintain the status quo."
This one is not: "I have always opposed Taiwanese independence,” he wrote. “In line with the U.S. and the international community, I support the ‘one-China principle.’”
While most Taiwanese do not want immediate independence, only the most pro-Beijing folks would say they outright oppose it.
Further, Hsu misses the mark on the one-China principle statement. The United States has a one-China policy, which recognizes Beijing as the only legitimate government of China but leaves Taiwan's status as undetermined. It is deliberately ambiguous.
China Boss notes that the turn on FEG is the umpteenth time in recent months she’s noticed Beijing working against its own long-term objectives. But the development may also increase the risk of military conflict. The wealthy and politically engaged taishang community is probably most responsible for helping to preserve the status quo in the Taiwan Straits. It helps block formal declarations of Taiwan’s independence and other Beijing provocations with its support of the pro-China KMT party, lobbying and narrative building. Take away the ability to do that, financially or politically, and pro-independence elements on the island could push more successfully. At any rate, may this update serve to correct the mistaken notion that the Party is always rational, strategic and effective.
For the rest of Bloomberg’s update, Tycoon Targeted by China Speaks Out Against Taiwan Independence, click here. For FT’s report, Beijing targets Taiwanese companies with operations in China, click here. For Matthew Fulco’s LinkedIn post, click here.
Law and International Xi
WTA suspends tournaments in China over disappearance of Peng Shuai
The WTA “is immediately suspending all tournaments in China, including Hong Kong, in response to the disappearance from public life of the tennis star Peng Shuai,” The New York Times has reported.
In a statement cited by the Times, Chief Executive Steve Simon said:
While we now know where Peng is, I have serious doubts that she is free, safe and not subject to censorship, coercion and intimidation.
If powerful people can suppress the voices of women and sweep allegations of sexual assault under the rug, then the basis on which the WTA was founded — equality for women — would suffer an immense setback. I will not and cannot let that happen to the WTA and its players.
A number of former tennis champions applauded the decision. Martin Navratilova told the Times:
It’s the right move and I’m so proud of the WTA for taking it. Now we are just going to have to see if the other sports, especially the ATP, will follow.
So far, however, there has been little indication that other professional sports associations will do so.
NYT:
The governing body for the men’s tour, the Association of Tennis Professionals, asked for an investigation into Peng’s safety, but has not suggested it would boycott China. And on Tuesday, World Athletics, the governing body for track and field, affirmed that it would hold its relay championships in Guangzhou in 2023. The organization is led by Sebastian Coe, a leading member of the I.O.C.
For the rest of NYT’s update WTA Suspends Tournaments in China Over Treatment of Peng Shuai, click here.
Dutch criminal complaint filed against Nike, Patagonia on Chinese forced labor
“A criminal complaint has been filed in the Netherlands, accusing blue-chip Western apparel brands including Nike, Patagonia and C&A of profiting from the alleged use of forced labour in the far-western Chinese region of Xinjiang,” the South China Morning Post has reported.
SCMP:
The filing this week by the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), a non-profit advocacy group, argued that the companies’ use of Chinese suppliers frequently accused of using forced labour breached Dutch law.
…The parties are accused of breaching tenets of Dutch law around “aiding and abetting participation in subordination of exploitation”, being complicit in “slavery, as a crime against humanity” and “aiding and abetting (debt) fencing and or (debt) money laundering”.
Each charge is a punishable crime under the Dutch criminal code.
SCMP’s Finbarr Bermingham noted that the action “is the third such filing in Europe made by the ECCHR, after complaints in France and Germany,” and that other parties were also named as defendants. At time of this newsletter’s posting, Nike and Patagonia had not responded to SCMP’s requests for comment on the report.
For the rest of SCMP’s report, Nike, Patagonia, C&A named in Dutch criminal filing on Chinese forced labour in Xinjiang, click here.
Henan provincial government procures surveillance system to track foreign journalists and international students
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