[Cross-Strait Relations Are Tense Taiwanese Are Calm? Xu Zongmao: The standard of living in the mainland's big cities is higher than that of Taiwan, and the Taiwanese people's view of reunification has changed.
A few days ago Chinese mainland conducted a series of military exercises, including a large-scale simulated blockade operation, and the people of Taiwan reacted calmly, arousing the curiosity of foreign media, and many people interpreted it as "not afraid of threats."
Xu Zongmao, a literary and historical worker on the island, wrote an article today that the Taiwan Strait crisis 26 years ago set off a wave of immigration in Taiwan, and in addition to the United States and Canada, some people also ran to central and South American countries, such as Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil, which are popular places. There were even advertisements in the newspapers for NT$100,000 immigrants to Belize, and some people actually went. The best-selling book "August 1995" is selling wildly, and people's hearts are extremely uneasy.
Xu Zongmao said: Compared with those days, the mainland's military strength today is far superior to that of that year, and Taiwan's fighters, warships, weapons, and equipment are relatively old. Taiwan's economy is heavily dependent on the mainland, and judging from any index, the gap between the forces between the two sides of the strait is probably more than 50 times that of the past, but the Taiwanese people are not afraid.
He believes that there are two reasons: In the past, Taiwanese people were afraid that the poor mainland would lower the living standards of Taiwanese, and the DPP often did this kind of propaganda. However, today this reason no longer exists, and Taiwanese are well aware that the living standards of the coastal big cities on the mainland are even higher than in Taiwan, and many Taiwanese people do business on the mainland and look for jobs. Taiwanese fears of a lower standard of living caused by reunification are gone.
The second reason is more fundamental: after Taiwan's implementation of democratically elected politics, especially THE DPP-style political propaganda, opportunism has become the state of ideological discourse in Taiwanese society. The real hardliners on both sides of the strait should immediately extend the conscription system and then play the right step. But the DPP is well aware that young people are opposed, and families are even more reluctant. Therefore, it is constantly used to use a set of cheeky speculative statements, and the memory of Taiwanese society is becoming more and more shallow anyway.
So once the mainland really fights, how will this set of opportunistic rhetoric be confronted? Xu Zongmao believes that there will be a mainstream theory that the mainland will have to deal with "Taiwan independence" elements anyway, and it has nothing to do with ordinary people. Since it is not afraid of the decline in living standards, the mainland will only deal with specific "Taiwan independence" groups, like Lin Feifan, so there is nothing to worry about, and anyway, when the time comes, it will only be those people.
What do you think of Xu Zongmao's views?
