China digs deep into Taiwan’s aboriginal ethnic groups through national research, affecting all 16 ethnic groups, involving the United Front System

Non-party legislator Gao Jin Sumei. (File photo)

Legislator Gao Jin Sumei's core staff were involved in the national security case, which led to a longer and deeper hometown connection. This newspaper has traced that China has conducted national-level research into all 16 Taiwanese aboriginal groups. Not only has it conducted tribal land transfers and brought aboriginal people to China, but the research results have also been directly connected to the United Front System. It is recommended that Taiwan’s resources be tilted towards aboriginal ethnic groups in order to enhance “centripetal force and cohesion” towards China. It even explicitly stated that the research should “serve the practical needs of the reunification of the motherland.”

SAIF has been in contact with China's Taiwan-related system for many years, and has repeatedly led indigenous ethnic groups to visit China. After the August 8 typhoon, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council raised 20 million yuan in disaster relief funds, and even entered the hometown through associations designated by the SAIF team. Since then, Chinese resources have extended from disaster relief to student aid and transportation. The SAIF team has also continued to organize indigenous people and students to go to China, and the contacts have lasted for more than ten years.

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On the one hand, the "Research on Relations between Taiwan's Aboriginal Ethnic Groups" was listed as a major project by China's National Social Science Fund and was implemented by a team from Xiamen University. The research team has arranged for more than 30 people to go to Taiwan for field training, each stay ranging from half a month to three months, covering all 16 tribes, and went deeper into the tribe to participate in festivals and interview elders.

The research didn't stop with the tribes. In 2018, the team held the first "Cross-Strait Ethnic Township Forum", inviting more than 100 scholars, local and ethnic minority representatives from both sides of the strait, nearly 40 of whom were from Taiwan; some of the aboriginal ethnic groups went to China for the first time, and were called "Shoulu ethnic groups" by the research team. The team made it clear that they wanted to use this to build a communication platform and increase Taiwan’s indigenous people’s understanding of China.

From in-depth analysis of the 16 ethnic groups to the "Shoulu ethnic group", the research results are directly connected to the United Front System

After field adjustments and exchanges, policy recommendations will follow. The chief expert of the plan has made suggestions related to Taiwan through the United Front Work Department of the Xiamen Municipal Party Committee and the Xiamen Municipal Committee of the Zhi Gong Party. In 2018, he plans to propose that China's "31" measures to benefit Taiwan should be moderately tilted towards Taiwan's indigenous peoples so that they can share in the fruits of China's economic development, thereby "enhancing centripetal force and cohesion towards the motherland."

This set of contacts has even been planned to be long-term. The National Ethnic Affairs Commission of China has discussed with Xiamen University to establish a "Taiwan Ethnic Minority Research Center" and a "Cross-Strait Ethnic Minority Exchange and Cooperation Base" to establish a long-term exchange mechanism. That is to say, from entering the tribe, inviting people to China, to making suggestions for resource allocation through the United Front System, research, exchanges, resources and policy suggestions are gradually connected.

Are the policies on paper carried into the hometown? The operational paths of SAIF teams are highly overlapping

Looking back at the track of the SAIF team in their hometown for many years, Chinese resources entered the tribes after the August 8 Typhoon, and then extended to daily areas such as education and transportation. On the one hand, the SAIF team continued to organize indigenous people and students to go to China. From the entry of resources into the hometown to the exchange of personnel with China, it highly overlaps with the two paths of "resource tilt" and "exchange and integration" proposed by China Research. The research team even bluntly stated that "theoretical research should serve the practical needs of the reunification of the motherland" and also make the CCP's long-term policy framework for the management of Taiwan's indigenous peoples from research, resources to exchanges clearer.