17 detained in Shandong to protest 7 million yuan in arrears On 1 December, workers took to the streets in Jining, Shandong province, to protest wages owed to them by construction developer Mingcheng Xinlingyu (New Horizon). The workers were owed 7 million yuan collectively for the construction of a local government building, amounting to 20,000 yuan per person. Police arrived on the scene and detained several workers; many were injured in the process. While some of those arrested were released from custody, 17 were charged with disturbing public order and detained for a week or more. In 2016 police were called in 25% of the time during construction worker actions, according to CLB’s strike map, and workers were subjected to violence and arrest.

20 jumpers scale Nanning mall to protest wage arrears

More than 20 migrant workers climbed the Wanda mall complex in Nanning, Guangxi, 13 December, threatening to jump from the rooftop if their wages were not paid before the Lunar New Year.
Like most large developers in China, Wanda relies heavily upon layers of subcontracting to build its projects. When workers demanded their wages, the construction company pointed the finger at the project’s subcontractor, who had already disappeared without paying workers.
Workers decided to take collective action to draw attention to their predicament. Not long after taking to the roof of the building, local government officials intervened and promised to settle the wages by the following day.

Annual wave of construction worker protests in full swing, officials fret over solution

China’s largest annual migration will soon kickoff as China’s migrant workers head home to celebrate the Lunar New Year, which falls at the end of January in 2017. In the month of December, protests over wage arrears surged, particularly in the construction industry, as workers took collective action to ensure they do not go home empty-handed.
Despite years of efforts to prevent them, government officials still struggle to prevent this annual surge in worker protests. In a recent interview, top officials from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security pointed to the industry’s widespread usage of subcontractors, flimsy governmental oversight and general economic downturn as factors that contribute to arrear disputes, and noted that worker collective actions remain extremely common for workers experiencing wage arrears.
Across the country construction workers blocked roads, protested at government buildings and even threatened suicide to get the attention of the local government and pressure their bosses to pay them their wages.

‘One China’ being negotiated: Trump

BARGAINING CHIP?President Tsai Ing-wen said her administration would be able to handle the nation’s place in US-China relations and ‘put Taiwan’s interests first’

Reuters

The national flags of Japan, Taiwan, the US and the Netherlands (L-R) hanging outside the Imperial Hotel Taipei in Taipei yesterday. Diplomatic relations between the United States and the Asian region are expected to change as US President-elect Donald Trump has said that the ‘one China’ policy on Taiwan is up for negotiation under his administration.

Photo: EPA

US president-elect Donald Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he would not commit to the “one China” policy until he sees progress from Beijing in its currency and trade practices.

In excerpts from the hour-long interview published on Friday, Trump, when asked if he supported the “one China” policy toward Taiwan that has underpinned US relations with Beijing for decades, said: “Everything is under negotiation, including ‘one China.’”

“We sold them [Taiwan] US$2 billion of military equipment last year. We can sell them US$2 billion of the latest and greatest military equipment, but we’re not allowed to accept a phone call. First of all, it would have been very rude not to accept the phone call,” Trump said in the interview.

In a previous interview with Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace last month, Trump questioned the need for Washington to stick to its “one China” policy.

“I fully understand the ‘one China’ policy, but I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘one China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade,” he said at the time.

Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) at the time said that the office had no comment about Trump’s remarks on the Fox show.

While in El Salvador on Friday, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), in response to reporters’ questions on concerns that Taiwan might become a bargaining chip in the relationship between the US and China, said she had heard the view.

“I feel that we are able to deal with such things and will put Taiwan’s interests first,” she said.

Trump has said he would label China a currency manipulator after he takes office.

In Friday’s interview, he said he would not take that step on his first day in the White House.

“I would talk to them first,” he said. “Certainly they are manipulators, but I’m not looking to do that.”

However, the president-elect made plain his displeasure with China’s currency practices.

“Instead of saying, ‘We’re devaluating our currency,’ they say, ‘Oh, our currency is dropping.’ It’s not dropping. They’re doing it on purpose,” the Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying. “Our companies can’t compete with them now, because our currency is strong and it’s killing us.”

In other news, a personal e-mail of former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton recently leaked by WikiLeaks suggested an adviser, Jake Sullivan, once shared with her an article titled “To save our economy, ditch Taiwan” by Paul Kane, a former international security research fellow at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

In the article, Kane suggested that US President Barack Obama could bolster US economic security by ending its military assistance and arms sales to Taiwan, in exchange for a write-off of US$1.14 trillion in US debt held by China.

“I saw it and thought it was so clever. Let’s discuss,” said Clinton, who ran against Trump in the US presidential election last year, in the leaked e-mail.

Additional reporting by CNA and staff writer

KMT chaos destabilizing to ties: ex-China official

KMT DECLINE:There is no longer a group in Taiwan that can balance the independence faction, and the only such force now lies in China, Wang Zaixi said

By Lin Liang-sheng and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is losing its status as a powerful political party and a counterweight to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), leading to the ever-decreasing possibility of peaceful unification, former vice minister of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Wang Zaixi (王在希) said in a recent interview with the Chinese Communist Party-controlled Global Times.

Wang said that the “status quo” is largely supported by ordinary Taiwanese, and any move that would challenge it would likely be opposed.

Asked about the influence of US president-elect Donald Trump on cross-strait affairs, Wang said that at the beginning of Trump’s presidency there would be a period when his administration would seek to cause trouble for China over Taiwan.

However, US support of Taiwan is conditional and would require reciprocation, and Taiwan should consider the possible result should it wish to risk peace, Wang said.

The Taiwan issue has existed for 67 years, and a solution will not be found overnight, Wang said, adding that arbitrarily assigning a time scheme for the resolution of “a complicated issue such as the unification across the Strait is impractical and unscientific.”

Regarding Taiwanese politics, Wang said there no longer exists a force within Taiwan that could counterbalance the pro-Taiwan independence faction, adding that the only such force now lay in China.

The KMT has lost its status as one of the nation’s major political parties, and the factions favoring unification are now scattered, leaving the DPP the sole party in power, Wang said.

Despite the decreasing chance of peaceful cross-strait unification, Beijing would nonetheless attempt to seek a solution peacefully, he said.

Economic sanctions against Taiwan would damage the interests of ordinary Taiwanese, Wang said, adding that Beijing should not seek to use the economy as leverage, but should instead seek to protect it.

Otherwise, China would continue to be unpopular in Taiwan, Wang said.

Meanwhile, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) on Thursday said that both sides of the Taiwan Strait should seek to prevent risks while protecting people’s rights, adding that in the council’s view, nothing about cross-strait affairs is “small potatoes.”

Media reports claiming that cross-strait relations have entered an ice age are overstating the matter, “at least from Taiwan’s perspective,” Chiu said.

In the new year, Taipei would work hard to maintain established structures on cross-strait relations and utilize multiple channels to conduct dialogue with China, he said.

While China places limitations on cross-trait interactions for political reasons, President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration would continue to handle cross-strait issues practically and call on China to admit the realities of cross-strait relations, Chiu said.

Additional reporting by CNA

China won’t allow sovereignty ‘fuss’: Xi

’COMPLEX AND SERIOUS’:China’s Taiwan Affairs Office minister said the year ahead would see uncertainty, while the Chinese president extended his New Year’s greetings

Reuters, BEIJING

China would never allow anyone to “make a great fuss” about its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights, President Xi Jinping (習近平) said in his New Year’s address, while China’s top official in charge of Taiwan ties warned of risks ahead this year.

China’s increasingly assertive moves to push its territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea — including building artificial islands — have unnerved its neighbors.

“We adhere to peaceful development, and resolutely safeguard our territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” Xi said, in comments carried by state media late on Saturday.

“Chinese would never allow anyone to get away with making a great fuss about it,” he said, without elaborating.

China claims most of the South China Sea. Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have competing claims.

While Xi made no direct mention of Taiwan, aside from extending New Year’s greetings to Taiwanese, the head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office in his New Year’s message said that this year would see uncertainty.

“Looking ahead to 2017, the situation in the Taiwan Strait is complex and serious, and the development of relations are facing many uncertain factors and risk,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) said, Xinhua news agency reported.

China hopes that people on both sides can show resolve and courage, to ensure the “correct direction” of the peaceful development of ties, and work to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, he added.

China’s military has become alarmed by what it sees as US president-elect Donald Trump’s support for Taiwan and is considering strong measures to prevent the nation from moving toward independence, according to a media report citing sources with ties to senior military officers.

Taiwan’s future lies in China: Hung Hsiu-chu

By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu is surrounded by reporters at Ming Chuan University in Taipei’s Shilin District yesterday.

Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times

Taiwan’s future lies in China, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said yesterday, while reiterating that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) are “not two countries.”

Hung made the remarks in a speech at Ming Chuan University in Taipei, where she talked about her life and views on “the nation and the world.”

She told her young audience not to impose restrictions in their life, work hard whatever job they are in and seek to create their own opportunities.

She also warned them against being captivated by power and losing themselves when in power.

During the question-and-answer session, several Chinese students expressed their affection for Hung and asked her about issues ranging from cross-strait relations to the KMT’s prospects.

When a Chinese student complimented Hung for “promoting unification,” Hung jokingly said: “Don’t you try to get me framed (你不要害死我),” but then added that while many have tried to label her as “red,” she said she is “not afraid.”

Few people “really understand the [ROC] Constitution, the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) and the ‘1992 consensus’; if they do, they would know how cross-strait policy should be developed,” she added.

While praising former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for maintaining the “status quo” during his eight years in office based on “mutual non-recognition of sovereignty,” “mutual non-denial of governing power,” and the promise of “no unification, no independence and no use of force,” Hung said it is not possible for Taiwan not to move forward forever.

“The reality is [Beijing] believes its sovereignty claim covers Taiwan, and Taiwan vice versa, so the sovereignty claims of the two sides actually overlap,” she said, calling for mutual recognition of governance and a step forward toward political negotiations rather than restricting cross-strait talks to economy-related matters.

The new KMT policy platform that was passed by the party’s national congress in September, which called for enhancing the so-called “1992 consensus” and exploring the possibility of ending cross-strait hostilities by signing a peace accord, is a step in this direction, she said.

However, the new policy platform has sparked controversy even within the party, with senior KMT members, including KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bing (郝龍斌) and former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), expressing their opposition to the changes.

Hung yesterday reiterated that the ROC Constitution refers to “one China” and the “1992 consensus” is “none other than a cross-strait effort to pursue unification,” but with the two sides differing in their interpretations of how it should be achieved.

When a Taiwanese student referred to the ROC and the PRC as “two countries” in his question, Hung interrupted him by saying: “[They are] not two countries.”

When the student asked about her long-term view on cross-strait relations, “whether it would be [Taiwanese] independence, unification or maintaining the ‘status quo,’” Hung said it would either be unification or unification by force.

The future of Taiwan lies in China, the second largest economy in the world, she said.

“While we can no longer retake the mainland, Taiwan can exert its influence [over China] and change its institution,” she said.

Prior to the event, Hung was asked to comment on KMT caucus convener Sufin Siluko’s (廖國棟) remarks on Thursday that he feared the KMT would become more like the “New Party” should Hung be re-elected chairperson.

Hung told reporters that since she became KMT chairperson, the party has not seen a drop-off in membership, but instead, more people wanting to become members.

She also took issue with KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao’s (賴士葆) call for a series of policy debates among chairperson aspirants before the end of next month, saying time should be allowed for preparation.

Additional Reporting by CNA