Recently the elements for "Taiwan Independence" in Taiwan Island have gone one after the other to rouse troubles in some officially run enterprises prefixed with the expression "China", demanding that these enterprises to replace it with "Taiwan". This indicates that the "De-China" foul wind blowing for years in the island is now trying to sneak into the enterprise circle.

Not many enterprises prefixed with "China" left in the Island

Actually, there are not many enterprises that are prefixed with "China" in the island and they are mainly the officially operated ones, and some are set up by citizens of the Chinese mainland with a relatively long history. At that time these entrepreneurs naming their enterprises with "China" or "Chinese" as prefixes indicated that they were very ambitious and full of enterprising spirits. In recent years, few of the newly established enterprises prefixed with the expression "China" can be seen due to the changing political atmosphere in the Island. The Taiwan magazine "Common Wealth" listed out 1000 key manufacturing enterprises and 500 major service enterprises in the Island. Among them that prefixed with "China" or kept the English word "China" on as their company names come only to 23 in all and those affixed with the similar expression "Chinese" add up to 10, and putting the two together makes 33 in total.

The enterprises affixed with "China" are the pivotal enterprises in their early days, having created many "No. Ones in Taiwan". Take "China Grindstone Co." for instance, it has created alone the first high-grade grindstone for industrial use in China. "China Television Co." operated by the Kuomintang was one of the three big TV stations in the island. "China Engineering Co." has been a famous enterprise in the construction industry for decades of years. "China Iron and Steel" and "China Shipbuilding" have both been the "ten construction" enterprises in 1970s in Taiwan.

In recent years though some enterprises prefixed with "China" begin to decline along with the economic development in the island yet most of them remain still the outstanding one from among the same trade. Among the 10 major manufacturing industries of 2003 in Taiwan the officially operated "China Petroleum" stands on the top of the list and the officially controlled "China Iron and Steel" is at the 7th place. Among the 100 big manufacturing industries those affixed with "China" or the similar expression "Chinese" come to a total of 6, including the civilian-owned "China Automobile" which is ranked at the 25th place. Of the 10 key service enterprises the officially operated "China Telecommunications" stands out at the 2nd place and "China Airlines", an officially holding company in the island comes up to No.6. Among the 100 large enterprises in the island those affixed with "China" or "Chinese" come to 5 in number. And those placed in among the list of 1500 large enterprises still include "China Pulp-making Co.", one of the two big pulp-making companies. And "China Display Tube Co.", the largest one for turning out image tubes and "China Synthetic Rubber Co." one of the two large synthetic rubber enterprises and so on.

Officially operated enterprises are goals of "De-China" at the next step

Judging from the namelist as mentioned above, the enterprises affixed with "China" are mostly the officially managed ones or holdings which effect a great influence on Taiwan economy. But these enterprises are also the primary goals for the "Taiwan Independence" elements to push ahead their "De-China" processes. For the moment, the Taiwan authority is now engaged in pushing around the process in which the officially owned enterprises are to become ones owned by civilians. According to the plan it will take 10 years for the shares officially owned in these enterprises to be reduced by selling their equities step by step and phase to phase to below 50 percent. Through a year's effort of reform and personnel shuffling the large officially owned enterprises or holdings have been changed with the PPP members to take up the chairmanship of the board of directors. At present, the primary goal for the Taiwan authority to push ahead its civilian-owned process centers on the "China Airlines". The company has always been indirectly controlled by the government authority through its parent company "China Airlines Development Foundation" and recently the chairmanship has been taken up by Chiang Yao-chung, a PPP member. By the end of 1990s due to the political pressure from inside and outside the island, the enterprise replaced its logo "bright sun in blue sky shines over the land" on the tail fin with a plum blossom. Now with the ceaseless bleeding of its shares what is now left for the enterprise is only the name of "China".

However, the "Taiwan Independence" elements are also faced with a considerable resistance if they want to realize fully their objective of "De-China" by forcing the enterprises to change their names. Because these enterprises though officially owned have undergone some 20 years in a process of civilian operation and management and the stocks of most of them have been openly listed in the stock market. If they are going to change their names they will be faced with a series of complicated legal procedure. Moreover, all these enterprises affixed with "China" have accumulated a great value of brand names. Once the names are changed it means that they have to give up a big sum of formless assets, thus causing heavy losses to these enterprises.

In the economic field, the "Taiwan Independence" elements can so far do their "De-China" only by forcing those economic groups prefixed with "China" to remove it. Because it is very easy for these organizations to change their names and will attract the least attention. These organizations are very quick in carrying out the "De-China" for they are either coerced from within or are afraid of incurring troubles. And prior to this some institutions engaged in the research of industrial technologies had removed the title of "Republic of China" under the economic support of the Taiwan "Ministry of Economy". Recently, the "Chinese Securities Association" again announced to the public that it is ready to take off the English word "Chinese" and change its name into "Taiwan Securities Association".

"De-China" causes disasters to enterprises

The "De-China" stirred up by the "Taiwan Independence" elements has already roused dislikes from among the far-sighted personages in the island nor do the enterprise-circles recognize it. For instance, Barry Lam, chairman of the board of directors of Quanta, a laptop computer incorporation of importance, once said openly with the young students in Taiwan, "the language we are speaking, the tales we are telling and the chopsticks we are using are all Chinese. How can we do the ��De-China'?" He pointed out further, "The Chinese civilization is the most profound one in the world. It is our root. We can learn the science and technology from the west but in the cultural field the Chinese culture is still the most suitable one for us."

Sure, no matter whether the relationship by blood or tradition the Chinese culture has long ago permeated into all aspects of the society in Taiwan. You'll feel deeply the atmosphere of the Chinese culture when you are there in Taiwan. The deep feelings are interrelated in innumerable ways. How can they be cut apart by only a handful of "Taiwan Independence" elements? For those enterprises with their company names prefixed with "China" the expression "China" has long been merged into their corporate culture, for which every member of these enterprises will feel proud. To force enterprises to make an unreasonable change of their names means to force the staffs and workers to forget the tradition-values worthy of pride. It is utterly unfair and will entail endless troubles for the future. Though the "De-China" makes a handful of "Taiwan Independence" elements feel smug for a moment yet it means an acute pain for those enterprises.

By People's Daily Online