2019 Agricultural Politics and Trade War 01 "China's propaganda drama comes out again. Is it tantamount to farmers making money when goods go out?

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/ Jiao Jun (author of Fruit Politics)

Looking back on the cross-strait situation in 2005, compared with today, more than a decade later, it is still steep; in 2005, a stone-breaking "Lianhu meeting" was described as the melting ice between the two sides of the strait, which also created an upsurge in the sale of Taiwan fruit to China; over the past decade, official exchanges between the two sides of the strait have stalled, but the CPC's United front tactics towards Taiwan are even more delicate, especially in buying over the hearts and minds of the peasants of the middle and lower classes.

Coincidentally, the campaign slogan of Han Guoyu, mayor of Xinke Kaohsiung, "goods go out, people come in, and Kaohsiung makes a fortune" seems to be in harmony with General Secretary Xi's latest policy on Taiwan, and the media have also confirmed that Taiwan businessmen in Pingtan, Fujian alone have placed 20 million orders to purchase agricultural and fishing products from Kaohsiung and southern Taiwan. Mayor Han is very smart and is afraid of being crowned with a red hat. At the same time, he has also vigorously promoted market access in Southeast Asia and other countries such as Hong Kong. But all this is just a beautiful mirage of politicians? Or can it really be realized in the interests of the peasants? The author will make a special analysis of a series of articles, with this article as the first one.

Did you sell the goods? Kaohsiung is going to make a fortune?

This time (2019) first started the export of Taiwan fruit (and other special agricultural and fishery products) to Taiwan businessmen in Pingtan, Fujian, rather than Shanghai, Beijing, or Xiamen in the past, but discerning people can see very clearly. This is to highlight the "propaganda operation" that "the intermediate process is not monopolized by other improper comprador groups". On that day, the headline of the news fight read, "the goods are sold!" Fujian buys 20 million Kaohsiung agricultural products directly from Kaohsiung Port in the afternoon. Taipei Express, which is parked in Kaohsiung Port, will quickly clear a truckload of containers of agricultural and special products from Kaohsiung to Pingtan Port in nine hours to start sales.

Interestingly, at the same time, the Kaohsiung municipal government also released news that the Taiwan Agricultural Special products Exhibition held by the Foreign Trade Association in Hong Kong would purchase dates from the Kaohsiung area, proving that "the goods have gone out." then people came in and Kaohsiung made a fortune!

But is it really that simple?

The Trade Association and the Council of Agriculture jointly push Taiwan fruits to Hong Kong (Photo Source / Foreign Trade Association website)

The second Chinese political purchase was directed at the hearts and minds of the people in Taiwan.

Back in 2005, the agricultural exchange between the two sides of the strait, which began with the Lian Hu meeting, was a political drama that "propaganda is more important than anything else." at that time, the units that cooperated with the performance were the result of "political calculation." the participants were all those who had contributed to cross-strait agricultural exchanges in the past, or those who had substantial benefits to the United front of cross-strait agricultural exchanges. But the political drama went off, when the Kuomintang comprador group monopolized China's policy purchase orders for agricultural products from Taiwan, detonating the sunflower student movement and eventually met with a counterattack after the 2016 presidential election.

Four years later, when the Democratic Progressive Party was defeated in the local general election in 2018, whether the CPC Central Committee launched the "second policy purchase order for agricultural products", so far there has been no obvious "action on the table". However, it can be seen that China has decided to find its trusted "intermediate white glove unit" when it does not trust Taiwan's political parties and politicians. These new "intermediary groups" seem to be under the guise of Taiwan businessmen, using legitimate agricultural trade to cover up the political purpose behind it.

From this point of view, in terms of the consistency of the CPC Central Committee's policy toward Taiwan, there will not be much change; in other words, this is another method of operation: in the past, there were Yunlin Logistics Company and Kaohsiung Agricultural Development Company as intermediary roles, but now they are replaced by new Taiwan businessmen like Huagang Group, that's all!

As a result, the interesting question is, is this new propaganda drama really a complete ball for the new Kaohsiung Mayor Han Guoyu? Or does the Chinese Communists' policy toward Taiwan have a different height, in order to "point directly at the hearts and minds of the people of Taiwan?" In this part, let's go on watching the play. (special series to be continued)

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