(The Guardian) China's French ambassador says Taiwanese people would be 'reeducated'
China’s ambassador to France has said the Taiwanese people would be “reeducated” after any successful annexation by China, in a fiery interview on French television.
The ambassador, Lu Shaye, accused Taiwan’s governing Democratic Progressive Party of conducting “extremist” propaganda and turning the Taiwanese people against “reunification” with China. -- We will re-educate. I’m sure that...the Taiwanese population will again become favourable of the reunification, and will become patriots again,” he said.
Online, many observers noted the term “reeducation” is also used to describe Chinese authorities treatment of Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang. There, authorities have sent an estimated 1-2 million people through what Beijing terms as “vocational education and training centres”.
Human rights groups and other governments say they are in fact part of a massive detention network. Lu denied the re-education would happen under threat, comparing it to French education of students on the values of its republic.
Challenged by the interviewer that Beijing wanted to have people thinking “correctly” in line with its own position because it did not like resistance, Lu said resistance “is not...the problem”. “The Taiwanese authorities apply an approach of... how should I say... slicing the salami - advancing bit by bit. If we don’t react, if we don’t respond, in the end they will achieve their goal: independence.”
Lu said “the majority” of Taiwan’s population were in favour of formally becoming a part of China just one or two decades ago. It wasn’t clear what his claim was based on.
An analysis of dozens of polls conducted by various organisations between 1994 and 2000 show that only on two occasions have a majority of respondents supported unification. Both were polls conducted by the policy council of the current opposition Kuomintang party, in 2000.
All other polls showed support between 15 and 30%.Recent polling has found support for unification to be at record lows. One poll conducted by National Chengchi University’s Election Study Centre (ESC) in June found just 1.3% of respondents wanted unification “as soon as possible”, and 5.2% wanted to maintain the status quo before an eventual “move toward unification,”.
China’s ambassador to France has said the Taiwanese people would be “reeducated” after any successful annexation by China, in a fiery interview on French television.
The ambassador, Lu Shaye, accused Taiwan’s governing Democratic Progressive Party of conducting “extremist” propaganda and turning the Taiwanese people against “reunification” with China. -- We will re-educate. I’m sure that...the Taiwanese population will again become favourable of the reunification, and will become patriots again,” he said.
Online, many observers noted the term “reeducation” is also used to describe Chinese authorities treatment of Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang. There, authorities have sent an estimated 1-2 million people through what Beijing terms as “vocational education and training centres”.
Human rights groups and other governments say they are in fact part of a massive detention network. Lu denied the re-education would happen under threat, comparing it to French education of students on the values of its republic.
Challenged by the interviewer that Beijing wanted to have people thinking “correctly” in line with its own position because it did not like resistance, Lu said resistance “is not...the problem”. “The Taiwanese authorities apply an approach of... how should I say... slicing the salami - advancing bit by bit. If we don’t react, if we don’t respond, in the end they will achieve their goal: independence.”
Lu said “the majority” of Taiwan’s population were in favour of formally becoming a part of China just one or two decades ago. It wasn’t clear what his claim was based on.
An analysis of dozens of polls conducted by various organisations between 1994 and 2000 show that only on two occasions have a majority of respondents supported unification. Both were polls conducted by the policy council of the current opposition Kuomintang party, in 2000.
All other polls showed support between 15 and 30%.Recent polling has found support for unification to be at record lows. One poll conducted by National Chengchi University’s Election Study Centre (ESC) in June found just 1.3% of respondents wanted unification “as soon as possible”, and 5.2% wanted to maintain the status quo before an eventual “move toward unification,”.
