• A Chinese Is Not Necessarily A Chinese

A Chinese Is Not Necessarily A Chinese
Taiwan Concerned Over Mistaken Identity in Vietnam Protests
By AUSTIN RAMZY

Anti-China demonstrators shouted slogans during a rally in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on Sunday.


Taiwan has voiced concern over the safety of its citizens doing business in Vietnam after protesters damaged several factories on Tuesday. 

The businesses based in Taiwan were targeted in an apparent case of mistaken identity by demonstrators angered by mainland China’s placement of an offshore drilling platform in waters claimed by Vietnam.

 
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry condemned the rioting.
In a statement it called on the demonstrators to “exercise self-control, don’t behave irrationally, damage Taiwanese factory equipment or threaten the safety of Taiwanese businesspeople, which could harm Taiwan’s willingness to invest and harm the longstanding friendly relations between the people of Taiwan and Vietnam.”

A representative of Taiwan’s de facto consulate in Ho Chi Minh City said on Wednesday that more than 200 businesses from Taiwan were affected. 

“There was quite a lot of damage,” said Chen Bor-show, the director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office.
“I think at least 200 companies were influenced and several factories were burned in Binh Duong and Dong Nai Provinces.”


An employee of a Chinese company in Binh Duong Province raising her arms on Wednesday in an appeal to protesters for restraint.

Mr. Chen said he did not know of any businesspeople from Taiwan who were injured.
The extent of the property damage was still unclear, as many factory bosses had fled and had not yet returned to survey the aftermath. 

“But the total amount is very, very big,” he said.
Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that businesses at Singapore-Vietnam industrial parks in Binh Duong Province had also been attacked. 

South Korean businesses were hit as well, according to the VNExpress news website.

Although relative calm had returned by Wednesday afternoon, many people were still concerned about their safety following the destruction of the day before.
“The situation last night was quite bad,” Mr. Chen said in an interview. 

“Today it’s calmed down a little bit, but most of the Taiwanese community and my office, we worry about tonight. Nobody can tell.”

Taiwan was an early investor in Vietnam, and its businesspeople have set up a large number of factories there.
Mainland Chinese investors arrived later, but because of linguistic and cultural similarities,many Vietnamese can’t separate the two, said Liu Yu-hsin, secretary general of the Council of Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Vietnam.
“The people protesting can’t tell the difference between Taiwan and China,” said Mr. Liu. 

“Most Vietnamese people can’t tell us apart and think Taiwanese are Chinese. It’s like Americans and English, some people see an English person and think they’re American.”
Taiwan maintains claims to the South China Sea that are essentially identical to the mainland’s, with both rooted in a nine-dash line drawn on a map by the Republic of China in the 1940s.

Beijing has been more aggressive about pushing the claim, and the harm to business interests in Taiwan because of a mistaken association with those acts has prompted frustration.

“People in Taiwan are very upset about this,” said Antonio Chiang, a Taipei-based political commentator and onetime national security adviser to former President Chen Shui-bian.

“How do they not know we are Taiwanese and they are Chinese?”

Beijing claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory and has tried to restrict its international recognition, blocking it from membership in multinational bodies, wooing its small number of foreign allies to switch to recognizing Beijing and forcing athletes representing Taiwan in international events to compete under the name Chinese Taipei. 

Those efforts at isolation have eased somewhat under the current Taiwan president, Ma Ying-jeou, elected in 2008, who favors better ties with mainland China and proposed a diplomatic truce with Beijing.

The assault on Taiwan-owned factories in Vietnam will put pressure on Mr. Ma’s government to defend Taiwan’s business interests there. 

And it will prompt further questions from critics who worry that his policy of détente with the mainland is undercutting recognition of Taiwan.

“We have to establish a distinct identity,” Mr. Chiang said.
“Or not only will this happen in Vietnam, but other countries, too.”