• By Hong Tsun-ming 康駿銘

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) has expanded on his so-called “Kinmen peace initiative” based on “one China, with each side having its own interpretation,” announcing that he would establish a “Kinmen peace foundation” and promote “peace” and “communication” across the Taiwan Strait by establishing a “cross-strait peace research institute.”

Gou, an independent candidate in next year’s presidential election, said that he would spend the rest of his life “pursuing cross-strait peace,” portraying himself as a “peace envoy.”

However, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has said that China would not renounce the use of force against Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party’s endless gray-zone warfare and infiltration have damaged and divided Taiwanese society in many ways, while endangering regional security and stability.

China’s malicious actions show that it is the aggressor and is unilaterally changing the cross-strait “status quo.”

Amid this, Gou, from his July 17 opinion piece in the Washington Post to his recent pronouncements, accuses the Democratic Progressive Party of causing cross-strait tensions by not recognizing the mythical “1992 consensus,” which says that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to “one China.”

By turning a blind eye to China’s malicious behavior and using his influence to promote this victim-blaming, Gou is appeasing the villain and distorting social justice.

What kind of peace does Gou want? The only kind of “peace” that China wants is “peaceful unification.”

Was the 1997 transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the UK to China not also “peaceful”? Today’s Hong Kong shows that rule by China is an irreversible disaster.

China has for many years promoted the anachronistic idea that “blood is thicker than water” and used Hong Kongers’ compassion to obtain material relief that helped China get through hard times. Later, Hong Kong companies contributed their talent, technology and capital to China, laying the basis for it to become the workshop of the world.

However, how does China treat Hong Kong now, after growing rich with the territory’s help?

Behind the bloody suppression of Hong Kong’s 2019 to 2020 protests against an extradition law, there has been a quieter process of plunder. After China took over Hong Kong, many people flooded in from other regions of China.

The huge differences between Hong Kongers and these newcomers in terms of values and culture disrupted the social balance. Cheap labor took away Hong Kongers’ job opportunities and social welfare, affecting their livelihoods. The interests of businesspeople who profited from the “China dividend” were built by stripping away the interests of ordinary Hong Kongers.

Moreover, China has invested heavily in unnecessary construction in Hong Kong in an attempt to solve its own overcapacity problem and it is still draining Hong Kong of funds after its real-estate bubble burst.

How many Hong Kongers who were once pro-China regret it now that they are suffering?

The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on the future of Hong Kong and the 1951 Seventeen Point Agreement on the “peaceful liberation” of Tibet prove that China is not to be trusted. The price to be paid for talking “peace” with China is clear.

Considering how many years Gou has been doing business in China, how could he not know what it has in mind?

He should stop trying to fool people.

Hong Tsun-ming, who is from Hong Kong, is a specialist in the Taiwan Statebuilding Party’s international section.

Translated by Julian Clegg