Taiwanese businessman Liao helps produce China's missile
Taiwanese businessman Liao helps produce China's missile
Harry Bhaskara, The Jakarta Post, Xiamen, China
The Foreign Affairs Ministry of China invited six Indonesian
journalists, including one from The Jakarta Post, to visit the
country in late November. The following is the first of a series
of articles based on the visit.
Liao Wanlung has only one year left before he retires. The
Taiwanese businessman founded the Xiamen-based CB Carbide Group
in 1994. With an investment of over US$100 million, it is the
world's largest privately owned carbide minerals company.
CB, which stands for Chuen Bao, is headquartered in Taiwan. It
is among the top ten in the world in the industry, and its
products have been used in Chinese rockets and missiles. Carbide
is a very hard material made of carbon and one or more heavy
metals. Widely used in military missiles, it is also a component
of numerous products that we use on a daily basis.
"I first came to China in 1987, and I have spent 300 days each
year in China since then," he told visiting Indonesian
journalists in his modern office in Xiamen. The city in the
southeastern province of Fujian is about 1,700 kilometers
southeast of Beijing and borders on Taiwan Strait. It was one of
the first designated economic zones when China reformed its
economy.
Liao said he was thankful to Deng Xiaoping -- the late Chinese
leader who launched China's economic reform in 1978, which made
it possible for Taiwanese businessmen to invest in China.
Indeed, Liao is a fine example of Chinese-Taiwanese
brotherhood as he is also thankful to Chiang Ching-kuo, the son
of the first Taiwan president, Chiang Kai-shek, who gave him his
first capital of 100,000 yuan (about US$10,000) to start his
business.
"I am thankful to these two people in my life," said Liao, his
head bowing solemnly as he referred to Deng and Chiang.
With about 1,000 workers, 20 of them Taiwanese, and with a
product output ranked fifth in the world in the industry, Liao
will have nothing to worry about when he leaves his company.
About 15 years ago, he said, Taiwanese businessmen were urged
to invest overseas, including China in the north, and Southeast
Asia in the south.
"Those who invested in the south, like in the Philippines and
Thailand, mostly failed, while those who invested in mainland
China mostly succeeded," said Liao, who still holds Taiwanese
citizenship.
Asked why the Taiwanese companies failed in the south, Liao
cited three reasons: cultural and linguistic differences, the
limited market, and inadequate resources.
"Furthermore, there is no other country in Asia whose
government has expended so much energy -- and thought -- for the
sake of businessmen as China," Liao said.
Xiamen, he said, was a testament in itself. When he first
arrived here in the 1980s, the road from the airport was all mud.
"Now, you can see for yourself," he said with arms outspread
as if to describe the mammoth changes that Xiamen -- which he
added was not much different to Taiwan -- underwent.
Every day, ships ply the short distance between Xiamen harbor
and nearby Jin Men islet, the closest islet controlled by Taiwan.
About 100,000 Taiwanese now live in Xiamen city, the island part
of the province.
Hong Chengzong, deputy director general of the Foreign Affairs
Office of Xiamen Municipal Administration, said Xiamen had held
regular cultural and sports events with Taiwan. It was not
unusual, he said, for patients from Jin Men island to see doctors
in Xiamen.
"How could you separate Xiamen from Taiwan, they are one
family," he said.
Liao said there was no problem in terms of people-to-people
relations.
"I met Chen Shui-bian last week," he said referring to the
Taiwanese president, "I told him that Taiwan should not go to war
with China. What's the benefit?"
China, Liao said, was the number one business partner of
Taiwan with the latter enjoying a US$30-billion surplus every
year.
Liao said only two Taiwanese did not want to have a good
relationship with China: Chen Shui-bian and his deputy, Annette
Lu.
Asked why Chen was reelected in the recent election, Liao said
it was because most Taiwanese were blind followers of Chen.
"Chen said he would fight for democracy, but actually he
wanted to fight for independence," Liao said.
In reply to a question, he said he preferred unification to
the status quo.
"This line of thinking is shared by most businessmen and most
Taiwanese," he said, "because the unification of China would
bring mutual benefits for China and Taiwan."
Despite the continuing tension between China and Taiwan,
businessmen and government officials in Xiamen said the common
people there were not worried about a possible war. If anything,
people-to-people relations would only grow closer in the near
future, they suggested.
Hong said he had heard talk that mainland Chinese people might
be able to visit nearby Jin Men island in the near future.
Taiwanese businessmen have been visiting China since the early
1980s, but the Taiwanese government is yet to allow mainlanders
to visit Taiwan. China has considered Taiwan a renegade province
since 1949, after the communists came to power. But Taiwan's
businessmen have invested heavily in the mainland in the last 20
years. Up until last year, Taiwan's investment in Xiamen reached
US$4.3 billion in over 2,000 projects.
From Xiamen island on the southern coast of China, Jin Men
islet is clearly visible. One could actually swim across the
2,000-meter-wide sea to the Taiwan-controlled islet. A rocket
missile is not needed, when the gap that exists can be bridged
through good relations.