MAC publishes book on risks in China

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has published a book detailing the risks of living or traveling in China, to help protect businesspeople and others who spend time there, the council's Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday.

"The book examines in detail the risks during the period from December last year to August this year, focusing on four major aspects -- social stability, trade and investment, travel and education and the living environment," Wu said.

Wu denied speculation that the book might be a warm-up for the government's tightening of its cross-strait policies, which President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) suggested would happen if the pan-blue camp prevailed in the Dec. 3 local government elections.

"As MAC chairman, it's absolutely not suitable for me to curse China, which is not the purpose of the publication," Wu said. "What we want to do is take responsibility for warning people of the dangers."

"No matter whether we like China or not, it is a fact that China has been experiencing more and more problems, and we have to realize that reality," he said.

Wu cited the recent shooting of protesters by security forces near Shanwei City, Guangdong Province, as an example, saying that such incidents prove that China is experiencing many social problems.

"According to the Chinese government's estimates, there were about 74, 000 riots last year, half of which were related to the controversy over land confiscation," he said.

Referring to a study by Hsu Chih-chia (許志嘉), an assistant professor of communications at Ming Chuan University, on the poverty gap in China, Wu said that Chinese society is on the verge of a major upheaval.

"In 2004, about 200 million people lived in poverty. The total sum of financial assets of rich families was 359 times higher than that of poor families. The serious inequity problem has become the main source of social instability," Hsu said.

Wu said that Taiwanese people haven't had access to sufficient information to gain an understanding of Chinese society.