Flirtation with an Island Neighbor

Fujian has eyes for Taiwan and for its native sons overseas

A beautiful land of rugged green hills and rich farm land, with a long, spectacular coastline, Fujian province faces Taiwan, 90 miles away across the Taiwan Strait. Closed to most non-Chinese for more than three decades, Fujian has been reopened both to foreign visitors and to foreign investment. TIME Peking Bureau Chief Richard Bernstein last week toured the provincial capital of Fuzhou and the port city of Xiamen (Amoy). His report:

"Just arrived," proclaims the large, handwritten sign, "new supply of nylon cloth from Taiwan. Come in and buy some." That notice would be passed without a second glance in Hong Kong or Singapore. Pasted up in front of a ramshackle department store in Xiamen's main town square, it is a striking sign of changing times. Largely because of its geographical proximity to Taiwan, Fujian province has become the focus of an active campaign by the Peking government to open up contacts with the prospering island.

In January 1979, China stopped its alternate-day shelling of the Taiwan-held offshore islands of Quemoy and Matsu; located less than ten miles from the Fujian coast, the islands were long regarded as symbols of the ongoing civil war between the People's Republic and the Republic of China. Fujian authorities boast that they have built five docking shelters along the province's coast for fishermen from Taiwan and that they have helped some 1,000 of them who ran into bad weather or engine breakdowns. Meanwhile, Fujian officials call for tours and even investments by their "Taiwan compatriots," some of whom have visited the province via Japan, the U.S. or other countries.

Local officials even seem willing to ignore a small-scale but apparently active smuggling trade that goes on between Taiwan and mainland fishermen, who frequently share the same fishing grounds. According to residents of Xiamen, the trade includes soap, towels and watches (often with fake Swiss markings) from Taiwan and gold (sometimes also fake) from the mainland. If that first shipment of nylon from Taiwan--which came indirectly via Hong Kong--is any indication, Taiwan could have a significant future market in Fujian. In less than two weeks, the shipment was 90% sold, despite a stiff price of $10 a meter.

Peking continues to call for a resumption of postal, telegraphic and air links between the mainland and Taiwan as a first step toward reunification. If this goal were achieved, Chinese authorities insist, Taiwan would be able to retain autonomy in most areas of life, including its own social system. Says Shi Hungyao, 47, a member of the Fuzhou city government, who emigrated to Fujian from Taiwan in 1948: "We recognize that Taiwan's standard of living is much higher than our own, so we don't want to do anything to change their style of life." Taiwan remains fearful that Peking's long-range goal is to impose Communism on the island, which not only has a higher living standard but enjoys far more political freedom as well. When asked to specify exactly what sort of autonomy China has in mind for Taiwan, one Fujian official replied, "It would be just like Tibet." Given Peking's tight political control over Tibet, that is not a reassuring example.

Fujian's flirtation with Taiwan is only one of several ventures that the province has embarked on to overcome its economic backwardness. Along with neighboring Guangdong province, Fujian has been given freedom by Peking to make its own deals with foreign companies for local joint ventures and economic investments. New port facilities are being constructed in Xiamen, but progress has been slow; the first four wharves will not be finished until 1982. Only a dozen or so investment contracts with foreign companies, worth about $25 million, have been signed. One of them is with the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which will use American equipment and raw materials to produce Camel cigarettes in Xiamen for sale to foreigners in China.

Fujian is also trying to attract overseas Chinese money back to the motherland. The province has a population of 24.5 million; roughly one-fourth of its citizens have relatives in other countries who annually send them nearly $100 million in remittances. Many of the more resplendent houses that dot Fujian's lush countryside belong to overseas Chinese. During the radical excesses of the Cultural Revolution, more than 2,100 houses owned by Chinese living overseas were seized. Fujian Deputy Governor Wen Fushan admits that some 70 of their owners, who happened to be in the country at the time, were "tortured to death." Most of those properties have been restored to their original owners or their kin, and Fujian authorities are hoping that new investments from native sons in other countries will begin pouring in again. Says Deputy Governor Wen: "The government will protect the rights and interests of those who keep Chinese nationality."

Fujian needs all the help it can get. The relatively small province has rich agricultural lands and abundant resources of coal, timber and seafood, but three decades of socialist revolution have not eradicated poverty. The towns are seedy. Housing is old, cramped, dingy, primitive. Groups of unemployed youths loiter outside theaters, or in black markets where they sell pop music tapes from Hong Kong and foreign cigarettes, as well as those "Swiss" watches smuggled in from Taiwan. Visitors from Hong Kong, returning to Fujian sometimes after decades, agree that while some things have improved --notably health and nutrition--the towns look just as they did at the time of the 1949 Communist conquest.

As contacts with the outside world increase and more overseas Chinese visit their old homes, it is painfully obvious to the Fujianese that those who left are better off than those who stayed behind. Every day in Xiamen's Overseas Chinese Hotel, locals come to see their overseas relatives, who are invariably wealthier and better dressed. In grateful awe, Xiamen residents accept gifts of such unobtainable luxuries as tape recorders and color TVs. Clearly, Fujian has a long way to go.

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