TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Chinese scholars at Xiamen University have offered recommendations to Beijing on the governance of Taiwan in the event of a hypothetical takeover by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) obtained the report from Xiamen University’s Cross-Strait Institute of Urban Planning. The authors call for Beijing to establish a “shadow government” for Taiwan in Xiamen to prepare for the rapid political integration of Taiwan into the People’s Republic of China.
The report, which was released in July, has since been deleted from the institute’s website. The authors acknowledged that the “one country, two systems” that guided Hong Kong policy for decades, and which had been has been touted for the future of Taiwan, is no longer a viable policy.
Instead, the institute recommends a rapid process of full-integration. The authors recommend that authorities in Beijing establish a “Central Taiwan Work Committee,” essentially a proto-provincial government, which could theoretically be transplanted to Taipei following an invasion.
Beyond simply appointing “shadow” officers and designing “shadow” agencies, the report advises a full-scale Taiwan Governance Experimental Zone in Fujian, which is already the host of the Cross-Strait Integration and Development Demonstration Zone. The reports identifies two areas suitable for developing the administrative experience of a shadow Taiwan government: Xiamen’s Xiangan District or Nanan City in Quanzhou.
The authors say these two locations could reasonably simulate the geographical and social conditions in Taiwan for the shadow government to experiment with imposing new policies in a simulated Taiwan after invasion.
The two primary objectives of the hypothetical Taiwan Central Work Committee will be to smooth the transition of power and to recruit and train so-called “anti-independence forces” in Taiwan, according to CSIS’ analysis. These individuals would ostensibly receive on-the-ground training as CCP cadres to assist in subjugating every region of Taiwan.
