Ever since a civil war split the two sides more than 60 years ago, China has viewed Taiwan as a renegade province that needs to be absorbed into the mainland. To that end, the Taiwanese businessmen working in China form a beachhead in a war of hearts and minds.
In June, hundreds of those businessmen gathered in a hotel ballroom in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. They were there to toast the new head of a local Taiwan merchants' association. They sipped "baijiu" white liquor and ate seafood as a troupe performed a traditional lion dance for good luck. An honored guest, senior Communist Party official Li Jiafan, stood to deliver congratulations and a message.
"I urge our Taiwanese friends to continue to work hard in your fields to contribute to the realization of the Chinese dream as soon as possible," said Li, using a nationalist slogan President Xi Jinping has popularized. "The Chinese dream is also the dream of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait — our dream of reunification."