Beijing planning new approach to Taiwan affairs
Mainland to focus on young people and small businesses after earlier efforts failed to advance its reunification agenda
Beijing has been reviewing its Taiwan policies after they failed to bear fruit and is considering a shake-up of the people in charge of cross-strait relations, sources and experts say.
But analysts in Taiwan say that between 2008 and last year Beijing lost its best chance to engage young Taiwanese and realign their mindset about the island’s historical link with the mainland.
Beijing would have a difficult time turning things around if it believed increasing exchanges with Taiwanese youths and small and medium-sized enterprises would work wonders to solicit their support, they said.
The new approach has echoes in Beijing’s approach to Hong Kong, where young people increasingly identify themselves as Hongkongers rather than Chinese 20 years after the former British colony’s return to Chinese sovereignty.
After losing hope in the efficacy of engagement with Taiwan’s independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government and the mainland-friendly opposition Kuomintang (KMT), as well as big Taiwanese businesses that have vast interests on the mainland, top leaders in Beijing now see appeals to young Taiwanese and grassroots businesses as the best bet for paving the way for future cross-strait reunification.
