10/08/2002
(Clearwisdom.net) TAIPEI - A Taiwan [practitioner] of the spiritual Falun
Gong movement was detained together with her teenage child, interrogated and
then repatriated back to the island days later by China's police on a family
visit to the mainland last year. She wasn't given a clear idea of the charges
leveled against her or the evidence to back up her arrest. To her fellow
practitioners of the Falun Dafa society, the other name for the Falun Gong in
Taiwan, that episode merely reflects the lack of civil liberties and a
transparent rule of law in China.
That incident is also one of many affecting the Falun Gong, banned in China
since 1999.
But for Chang Ching-hsi - an economics professor at Taiwan's top-rated
National Taiwan University[...] that event reflects the risks facing the many
Taiwan investors who have sunk some US$100-120 billion into the mainland over
the last decade.
Taiwanese investors in China, warns Chang, are facing as much threat from the
lack of a transparent rule of law on the mainland and its creaky banking system
as the Falun Gong followers there face from Beijing.
Chang, who belongs to the school of thought that believes the Chinese economy is
on the brink of disaster, says "China's collapse is just a matter of time."
Taiwan firms, meantime, continue to pour money into China.
Lending To Firms With Large China Exposure Discouraged
Chang acknowledges Taiwan manufacturers need to move their operations to China
to cut costs, but frets about the rush of capital flowing into the mainland. The
Taiwan government discourages banks from lending too much to local firms with
too large an exposure to China.
As a result, Taiwanese investors there are likely to borrow more from the
mainland's banks. Last month, for instance, four Chinese banks participated in a
US$223 million syndicated loan for Nan Ya Plastics Corp. (Q.NYP), one of
Taiwan's largest plastics company, for the firm's factory expansion in Suzhou.
But Chang says that China's banks are "saddled with so much bad loans, and
(with) the government showing no respect for human rights, I don't know why I
should feel happy for those going to China."
Official estimates in China reckon around 25% of banking loans in its
state-owned commercial banks are overdue. But private economists say the actual
figure could be 50%, or much higher.
Chris Leung, banking analyst at Dao Heng Bank in Hong Kong, says the most
daunting problem lies within China's state-owned banks, namely Industrial &
Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China (Q.AGB), China Construction
Bank (Q.CCB) and Bank of China (Q.BCH), which account for over 85% of
outstanding lending in China.
State banks like those are likely to be involved in funding major projects by
Taiwanese firms - including those building multimillion dollar semiconductor
plants on the mainland after a ban on such investments was lifted recently by
Taiwan.
Taiwan has been ruled by a separate government since a Chinese civil war ended
in 1949. But Beijing has regarded the island as a runaway province to be taken
back by force if necessary.
[....]
After the question of Taiwan's sovereignty, perhaps no other issue riles China
more than the Falun Gong.
Beijing banned the group in July 1999 as there were fears the Falun Gong
movement, roughly estimated at 60 million-70 million in China - more than the
number of the Chinese Communist Party - would grow too big to become a threat to
the government.
300,000-400,000á Faluná Dafa Members In Taiwan
Since then, China has been widely reported to have detained and abused thousands
of followers, while this movement - which stems from the ancient tradition of
exercise and meditation of qigong - is legal and practiced openly in Taiwan and
dozens of other countries.Chang himself has been a Falun Gong follower for four
years. His Falun Dafa Society has grown quickly to some 300,000-400,000
practitioners islandwide.
Every early morning or evening, groups of Falun Dafa practitioners gather,
including in public spaces, for meditation and exercises, believed to bring
spiritual and physical betterment to individuals.
Contrast this with the Falun Gong movement in China. Meetings of the Falun Gong
practitioners in China are mostly underground, given their illegal status.
There are also barely any contacts between the Falun Gong followers across the
strait, says Chang, because China keeps tabs on what it views is a group bent on
creating havoc in the country.
Last month, Beijing hurled more accusations against the Falun Gong. China
alleged a Taiwan-based broadcast outfit was used by Falun Gong to hack into
China's top television satellite systems. Taiwan officials are looking into the
matter, but one said such possibilities are "farfetched."
[...].
Category: Falun Dafa in the Media