Sounds innocuous: a platform offering to connect job providers with job seekers. But the companies with the jobs are in the People’s Republic of China, and the people looking for the jobs are in the Republic of China. And the platform is run by the former country.
ROC Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (shown above) says that the Taiwan Youth e-Home platform, the stated purpose of which is to “help Taiwanese youths find educational and employment opportunities in China,” violates the Cross-Strait Act. The MAC will work with other agencies to block or remove the e-Home platform.
Article 23 requires individuals and organizations to obtain prior government approval before recruiting students in Taiwan on behalf of Chinese educational institutions.
Meanwhile, Article 34 permits advertisements or promotional activities in Taiwan for Chinese goods, services or other matters only if authorized under the act.
Chiu also warned that users could face significant risks by submitting personal information through the platform.
He accused Beijing of using the platform to “govern Taiwan before unification” and conduct public opinion and psychological warfare against Taiwan.
China denies everything.
“Deliberate smears,” says Chen Binhua, spokesman for the PRC’s Taiwan Affairs Office. Haven’t Taiwanese officials ever heard of job sites that collect information from interested parties? “Are there any online job-search platforms in the Taiwan region that do not require users to provide their names or submit résumés?”
Chen also “said the platform…strictly protects job seekers’ personal data in accordance with the law.”
How many lies by Chen did you count? There are at least three.
The lies
One is that since Taiwanese applicants for jobs or schooling don’t normally have to worry about the national security threat represented by Taiwanese job or education sites, they also don’t have to worry about the national security threat represented by a job or education site based in the People’s Republic of China, which constantly threatens Taiwan in various ways and ad nauseam repeats its determination to add Taiwan to its conquests.
Another lie is that there’s a “Taiwan region”—of the People’s Republic of China. The PRC has never ruled Taiwan. You might call Taiwan a region of the Republic of China. But Chen means to imply that the Republic of China is not a country, is not separate and independent from the mainland, even though it obviously is. The PRC has been wanting to attach Taiwan to itself for a long time, but hasn’t yet quite managed to do so.
The third lie is that if a Chinese official says that something or other, persons, data, whatever, will be protected “in accordance with the law,” then that something will be meaningfully protected. If and when CCP can use the data about Taiwanese job applicants to attempt to undermine Taipei, it will use it and will say that it is doing so “in accordance with the law.”
