Facing the great changes unseen in a century, the international situation is changing rapidly. With the increasing likelihood of Trump taking office, the timetable for unifying Taiwan may be advanced at any time. The turmoil in Hong Kong in recent years shows that if the handover of power is not adequately prepared, it will have very serious consequences for the smooth handover of future social order. Since Taiwan does not have the problem of “fifty years unchanged”, once the mainland takes over Taiwan, its depth and breadth will be far greater than that of Hong Kong in 1997, and it is imperative to prepare for the comprehensive takeover of Taiwan after reunification.
To this end, the Cross-Strait Urban Planning Institute of Xiamen University put forward two suggestions:
First, establish the Central Taiwan Work Committee as soon as possible.
The sole goal of this organization is to act as a “shadow government” to receive the regime on the other side at any time. Only a clear and urgent goal can ensure the effectiveness of the organization’s operation. The organizational structure of the Central Taiwan Work Committee completely benchmarks the regime and core organizations on the other side, and is divided into comprehensive departments and professional departments. Among them, the comprehensive departments focus on studying the application of laws after the takeover of power, currency conversion, docking of land-island infrastructure, identification of military, public, and teaching personnel, customs and international travel policies; the task of the professional departments is to thoroughly understand the history, current situation, personnel, and operating rules of the corresponding departments on the island, and on this basis, propose a variety of receiving plans, including personnel, funds, and assets. As a relatively more developed economy than the mainland, Taiwan needs to deal with many problems that the mainland rarely or even has not encountered, which requires that this work be carried out as early as possible.
The role of establishing this institution:
First, quickly familiarize yourself with Taiwan’s current system, institutions, and laws. Conduct targeted intelligence gathering, in-depth analysis, understanding, and tracking of the current situation and historical evolution of these institutions. Based on the experience and lessons of Japanese colonization, the Kuomintang’s post-war acceptance, and Hong Kong’s return, propose corresponding system retention, system change, system introduction, and system innovation, and design the systems that need to be changed and alternative laws in advance. Unlike the current academic Taiwan studies, the various departments of the Central Taiwan Work Committee should have specific and clear task orientation, with actual combat as the premise, in order to deeply and efficiently digest Taiwan’s existing system.
Second, unite the anti-independence forces on the island. In recent years, the unification forces on the island have been declining, lacking a real expectation and actual institutional carrier for unification. With the softening of the Kuomintang’s anti-independence stance and even moving towards implicit independence, the forces supporting unification have been reduced to unorganized individual behavior. The establishment of the Central Taiwan Work Committee can integrate this part of the forces into national behavior, and the anti-independence forces will be systematized and institutionalized. The reason why the CCP was able to persist for a long time in its early days was largely related to the support of the Communist International. The Central Taiwan Work Committee can greatly change the expectations on the island, and make the anti-independence activities that are currently vilified and isolated on the island become heroic actions after the reunification of the motherland. Through departmental direct consultation and commissioned research, and soliciting public opinion after the reunification of the island, the real sense of Taiwan’s return can be spread to all strata of the island. The reason why this “military exercise around Taiwan” did not have much impact on the hearts of the Taiwanese people is that the Taiwanese people believe that reunification is still very far away. As long as the actual preparation for receiving the regime begins, this action itself will have a significant impact on the hearts of the people on the island.
Third, smooth the impact of the transition of power. With the growth of the mainland’s military strength, the difficulty of reunification itself is decreasing, and effective control after reunification will become more and more important. The relevant departments of the Central Taiwan Work Committee, through personal consultation and project commissioning, allow the elites and institutions on the island to participate as much as possible in the design of the Taiwan reception plan, which may prepare more plans for the future transition of power, and the island will also form stable expectations and psychological preparation. Letting Taiwanese society feel that the power handover plan is designed by them will greatly reduce the cost of future real governance and form a mainstream social consensus.
Second, establish a Taiwan governance pilot zone as soon as possible.
The recent turmoil in Hong Kong shows that “one country, two systems” and the complete acceptance of the existing system are not necessarily suitable for Taiwan, and Taiwan should aim to completely integrate into the mainland from the beginning. In order to test the effect of the policy in advance and train the cadres who will take over the regime, it is necessary to set up a highly simulated physical environment to comprehensively simulate the management model after the reunification of the island. The location can be chosen in the Xiang’an District of Xiamen and Nan’an City of Quanzhou, which are adjacent to Kinmen. Here, there are mountains and the sea, ports, and airports, and the language and culture are similar to Taiwan, and the main geographical elements and infrastructure of Taiwan can be found with similar benchmarks. This is a condition that Pingtan does not have. In particular, due to the close exchanges between Xiamen and Kinmen, setting up an experimental zone here is most conducive to replicating and imitating Taiwan’s current administrative system.
First, policy experiments. Try to simulate the real Taiwan regime structure in the experimental zone. Policies and laws are based on the actual policies to be adopted by Taiwan after reunification, from the abolition of the election system to the retention of simplified and traditional Chinese characters; from how to transition currency (including the transition of real estate systems, including land) to how to hand over textbooks and teachers (including the college entrance examination system and academic certificates) … Then let various social entities, especially the local people in Taiwan, propose modification suggestions for the handover plan, and realize rapid policy iteration in the experimental zone.
Second, train cadres. The main purpose of setting up the Taiwan governance pilot zone is to simulate the real governance model after taking over Taiwan, and to prepare systems and cultivate talents for the actual takeover. Taiwan has been separated from the mainland for many years, and cadres who are familiar with the mainland may have to start from “ABC” in Taiwan. Whether it is the interaction model with residents or the method of communicating with the media, they are unfamiliar to mainland cadres. This requires a real scenario for learning to govern Taiwan. The experimental zone can introduce retired military, public, and teaching personnel from Taiwan to assist in formulating the details of the takeover policy, shortening the transition period, which is the riskiest period for the power switch.
Third, demonstrate governance. The governance sample of Taiwan after reunification was originally Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems”. But after the previous “trouble”, Hong Kong, as a model, has not much persuasive power on the island. This requires establishing a new model. The Liberation War, the Communist Party’s short-term large-scale reception of the Kuomintang-controlled areas, seemed to be a crushing defeat, but in fact, the Communist Party had already had a lot of experience in building power in the base areas before this. Now, although our party has a lot of experience in governing power, the generation that received and established power has passed away, so we need to start again. Reunification is only the beginning, and governance is the standard for testing whether reunification is successful.
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