China ramps up business charm offensive towards Taiwan alongside political pressure, study shows
By Yimou Lee
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese joined industry events in China such as conferences and trade fairs supported by the Chinese government in 2024, a study showed on Tuesday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward the island alongside military pressure.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own despite Taipei's objections, has long taken a carrot and stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing's point of view.
Taiwan security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing's influence campaigns to sway Taiwan public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of such programmes have not previously been systematically reported.
About 39,374 Taiwanese last year joined more than 400 business events supported or organised by government units across China, according to the study by Taiwan Information Environment Research Center (IORG), a Taiwan-based non-government organisation.
IORG's research analysed more than 7,300 articles posted by a news portal run by China's top Taiwan policy maker, the Taiwan Affairs Office. These articles offered event details, including the scale, location and agenda and were examined by AI-assisted tools and verified by IORG researchers.
The number of Taiwanese attending state-supported business events in China represented a 3% increase from 2023, IORG said, adding the agriculture, tourism and biotechnology and medical industries were among the top sectors.
"These are common industries in which the Chinese Communist Party exerts political pressure on Taiwan through economic means," the IORG report said.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ruling Communist Party's fourth-ranked leader, Wang Huning, told an internal meeting on Taiwan in February that Beijing was working to expand people-to-people exchanges in a bid to "deepen cross-strait integration and development," state news agency Xinhua reported at the time.
The 2024 events surveyed by IORG included a June job fair in southeast China's Fujian province targeting more than 1,500 Taiwanese university graduates.
"Reward and punishment always go hand-in-hand in the Chinese influence campaigns on Taiwan," IORG co-director Yu Chihhao told Reuters. "Military drills and intimidation are punishment; cross-strait business cooperations are reward."
China staged two days of war games near Taiwan this month.
(Reporting By Yimou Lee. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
14 minutes ago
- Axios
MAGA's blue-collar base waits patiently for populist payoff
President Trump 's second term has been a payday for the powerful, exposing a disconnect in his promise to deliver for "the forgotten man" of America's working class. Why it matters: The populist paradox at the heart of MAGA — a movement fueled by economic grievance and championed by a New York billionaire — has never been more pronounced. Trump's blue-collar base remains fiercely loyal, energized by his hardline stances on immigration, trade and culture — and patient that his economic "Golden Age" will materialize. But so far, the clearest financial rewards of Trump's tenure are flowing upward — to wealthy donors, family members, insiders and the president himself. The big picture: Trump's inner circle has shattered norms around profiting from the presidency, dulling public outrage to the point where even the most brazen access schemes draw only fleeting scrutiny. Take crypto: The top holders of Trump's meme coin were granted an exclusive dinner last month at the president's Virginia golf club, where some paid millions for access. The White House refused to release the guest list, but wealthy foreigners — including a Chinese billionaire who faced SEC charges under the Biden administration — were among those revealed to be in attendance. Trump's sons, meanwhile, are spearheading a family crypto venture that has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars. Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, is raising $2.5 billion to buy Bitcoin. All of this — plus a flurry of lucrative real estate deals overseas — is playing out as Trump presides over U.S. foreign policy and the fate of crypto regulation. Zoom in: Now take Trump's relationship with his donors. His Cabinet is the wealthiest in American history, stocked with mega-donors whose combined net worth reaches well into the billions — even discounting estranged former adviser Elon Musk. Trump has granted pardons or clemency to a stream of white-collar criminals and wealthy tax cheats, many of whom hired lobbyists, donated to the president or raised money on his behalf. The Wall Street Journal found that the biggest corporate and individual donors to Trump's inauguration later received relief from investigations, U.S. market access and plum postings in the administration. The other side: Trump officials wholly reject the premise that the administration's policies don't benefit the working-class Americans who voted for the president en masse. The White House points to cooling inflation, plummeting border crossings, and the tariff-driven re-shoring of manufacturing as evidence of Trump delivering on his core promises. They frame his crypto push, AI acceleration and deregulatory agenda as driving forces behind a pro-growth tide that will lift all boats — including for middle- and working-class Americans. Reality check: Inflation may remain benign for now, but there are growing signs businesses are experiencing higher prices and passing some or all of those costs directly through to consumers, Axios managing editor for business Ben Berkowitz notes. While companies have made encouraging public statements about re-shoring, in almost all of those cases it's too soon for any shovels to be in the ground. What to watch: Trump's "One, Big, Beautiful Bill" is packed with populist red meat, including the extension of his first-term tax cuts, the elimination of taxes on tips and overtime, and $1,000 " Trump Accounts" for newborns. "All his hopes and dreams on that front are pinned to that reconciliation bill," one MAGA operative told Axios, characterizing it as "the bulk" of Trump's legislative agenda for the middle class. "The president expects the Senate to quickly pass the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, codifying huge tax cuts that will mean permanent savings for hardworking Americans," White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said. Between the lines: Several independent analyses project that the wealthiest Americans would benefit most from the bill. A Penn Wharton study that found the top 10% of earners would reap 70% of the legislation's total value. The Congressional Budget Office projects that Medicaid work requirements and other health care cuts would leave about 11 million people uninsured by 2034. Millions could also be forced off of food stamps. "Medicaid, you gotta be careful," former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said on his "War Room" podcast in February. "Because a lot of MAGAs are on Medicaid, I'm telling you. If you don't think so, you are dead wrong." Factory investments in red districts are expected to suffer most from the bill's rollback of clean energy credits included in President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. The bottom line: Inside the MAGA movement, there's little concern about who's getting rich as long as Trump keeps fighting the culture wars, deporting immigrants and tearing down liberal institutions.
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Class of 2025 shows increase in kids involved in extracurriculars in line with Spokane Public Schools' efforts to engage
Jun. 7—Some of the colorful cords that adorn the hundreds of Spokane Public Schools' graduates this year represent their involvement in one of the school district's 1,024 unique activities. Still feeling the side effects of COVID-induced school closures, school staff have made an effort to boost nonacademic offerings to foster community in schools, an element staff hope will benefit attendance, mental health and reduce time kids spend on screens. Through the past three school years, students have steadily become more engaged in the district, measured by involvement with a sport, club, the arts or a community group at school. In the 2022-23 school year, 29% of kids were engaged. The next year, it was just over half of students. This school year, nearly 65% of students were engaged, and 64% of the senior class was involved in something nonacademic at school, according to the district. For graduate Nermin Omar, Rogers High School senior class president, clubs enriched her experience at high school; she was, involved in her school's Amnesty International club, multicultural club, National Honors Society, Key Club and leadership. "You can't just go to school and be like, 'I'm just going here for education,' " she said. "I think of school as my second home, I'm that nerd." Favorites of hers, which she arduously selected from her extensive resume, were Amnesty International and multicultural club — both gatherings of peers from diverse cultural backgrounds, many hailing from other countries. This year, over 200 seniors joined "belonging-focused" clubs like this. Omar became Amnesty International's president her freshman year. An immigrant from Syria, she relished the chance to show off her culture. Omar is Kurdish, an ethnic group that resides in a region that encompasses parts of Syria, Iran, Iraq and Turkey . Omar and her family fled the civil war in Syria when she was young, living in Turkey and eventually settling in Spokane, where she attended Logan Elementary as a fourth -grader and finally "started dreaming," she said. Her Kurdish background is integral to Omar's identity, and the clubs gave her the space to express and explain her culture, beyond just saying she's from Syria, with peers who felt the same about their cultural identity. "I need to show this to the school; we can't be known as just one simple country," she said. Sports were another popular means to participate outside of academics among the class of 2025, with 127 seniors playing volleyball, 100 running in cross country, 85 playing baseball and 300 each in basketball and track and field, according to the district. One of those 300 was Rogers' Daeante Bedford, who uses the latter two sports to keep in shape for football, his true athletic passion. After graduation, he's bound for a school in Iowa to play football. Playing sports in high school helps motivate him with school, keeping his grades up so he stays academically eligible for the teams. It's also changed his attitude measurably, he said. "If something didn't go my way, really I'd just get kind of mad about it. I had a short fuse, but I learned to have a lot more patience with people and help out people, too," Bedford said. While clubs intend to foster belonging at school, On Track Academy graduates Hailey Bjornstad and Caitlynn Forech expressed a cycle that kept them from wanting to participate before transferring to On Track. Each said they didn't feel welcome at the traditional schools they attended before transferring to On Track, an option high school that focuses on project-based learning for those who don't thrive in the classic classroom setting. "I wasn't really interested in anything; I low -key skipped a lot," Forech said. "I was home, that was low -key when I was depressed too. I was going through a lot that year." Because they didn't feel they belonged at school, there was nothing motivating them to join a club or activity. Part of the reason they don't feel connected at school was a lack of buy-in to the community, they said — something that the district aims to foster through clubs and activities. After enrolling in On Track and finding their passions in teaching and stained glass, they now feel much more comfortable at school with friends and teachers to whom they've grown close. Though a majority involve themselves outside of class, some are just trying to stay afloat with schoolwork and see graduation. That's the case for Rogers graduates Jasmine Contreras, Sarah Dahl and Dakota Nipp, three friends who don't have any regrets abstaining from clubs or sports in their high school careers. "I feel like since COVID, a lot of us just kind of gave up on social cues, socializing, doing clubs and stuff," Conteras said; the class of 2025 were in middle school when the schools closed from the pandemic. "It was maybe social anxiety; it's not really like the community like it used to be," Dahl said. Though their high school careers were focused on passing classes rather than joining extracurriculars, they don't feel they've missed out. Conteras, enrolled at Spokane Falls Community College to study teaching, said she may consider clubs at that level. Maybe something in photography, an interest sparked through a class at Rogers. When the class of 2027 crosses the graduate stage in two years, district staff have made it their goal to involve 78% of their students in an extracurricular activity. Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Gerry Adams's lawyer to pursue chatbots for libel
The high-profile media lawyer who represented Gerry Adams in his libel trial against the BBC is now preparing to sue the world's most powerful AI chatbots for defamation. As one of the most prominent libel lawyers in the UK, Paul Tweed said that artificial intelligence was the 'new battleground' in trying to prevent misinformation about his clients from being spread online. Mr Tweed is turning his attention to tech after he recently helped the former Sinn Fein leader secure a €100,000 (£84,000) payout over a BBC documentary that falsely claimed he sanctioned the murder of a British spy. The Belfast-based solicitor said he was already building a test case against Meta that could trigger a flurry of similar lawsuits, as he claims to have exposed falsehoods shared by chatbots on Facebook and Instagram. It is not the first time tech giants have been sued for defamation over questionable responses spewed out by their chatbots. Robby Starbuck, the US activist known for targeting diversity schemes at major companies, has sued Meta for defamation alleging that its AI chatbot spread a number of false claims about him, including that he took part in the Capitol riots. A Norwegian man also filed a complaint against OpenAI after its ChatGPT software incorrectly stated that he had killed two of his sons and been jailed for 21 years. Mr Tweed, who has represented celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Harrison Ford and Jennifer Lopez, said: 'My pet subject is generative AI and the consequences of them repeating or regurgitating disinformation and misinformation.' He believes statements put out by AI chatbots fall outside the protections afforded to social media companies, which have traditionally seen them avoid liability for libel. If successful, Mr Tweed will expose social media companies that have previously argued they should not be responsible for claims made on their platforms because they are technology companies rather than traditional publishers. Mr Tweed said: 'I've been liaising with a number of well-known legal professors on both sides of the Atlantic and they agree that there's a very strong argument that generative AI will fall outside the legislative protections.' The lawyer said that chatbots are actually creating new content, meaning they should be considered publishers. He said that the decision by many tech giants to move their headquarters to Ireland for lower tax rates had also opened them up to being sued in Dublin's high courts, where libel cases are typically decided by a jury. This setup is often seen as more favourable to claimants, which Mr Tweed himself says has fuelled a wave of 'libel tourism' in Ireland. He also said Dublin's high courts are attractive as a lower price option compared to London, where he said the costs of filing libel claims are 'eye-watering'. He said: 'I think it's absurd now, the level of costs that are being claimed. The libel courts in London are becoming very, very expensive and highly risky now. The moment you issue your claim form, the costs go into the stratosphere. 'It's not in anyone's interest for people to be deprived of access to justice. It will get to the point where nobody sues for libel unless you're a billionaire.' Meta was contacted for comment. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
