Who cares? Taiwanese say on China congress

TAIPEI, Mar 5 (Reuters) It took Taipei university student Vera Liu a few moments of brain-racking to recall the significance of China's National People's Congress.

''I've heard of it, but I don't pay attention to it,'' said Liu, 23, a student at National Taipei University. ''China-Taiwan relations are kind of ambiguous now.'' Her reaction is a far cry from the mood on the street two years ago, when the annual session passed an Anti-Secession Law. Then, there were island-side protests against the law which mandated military force if self-ruled Taiwan declared independence from China.

But today, Liu's numbness to China's legislature, which in Beijing is a major event that shuts down parts of the city and dominates national media for days, is shared by many across Taiwan.

Despite China's curbs on the island's foreign relations and threats to take it by force if it declares formal independence, most young Taiwanese do not believe cross-strait relations will be affected by the sitting.

''We don't know what's going on,'' lamented Taiwan legislator Joanna Lei. ''The media here need to take a more active interest outside Taiwan.'' Young people say they are too busy with their own lives to focus on the government in China, which has considered Taiwan part of its territory since the Nationalists fled there after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's Communists in 1949.

Some also find the National People's Congress meaningless because, unlike at Taiwan's parliament where anything can happen, Chinese legislators follow Communist Party directives that are quietly worked out at lower-profile meetings in Beijing every autumn, said Beijing-based political author Zhang Zuhua.

''Normal people won't pay attention,'' added Hsu Yung-ming, associate research fellow at the Taiwan think tank Academia Sinica.

''Changes in the Chinese social strata won't affect Taiwan society or cross-strait relations.'' But Taiwan scholars and business people, including a growing number of China investors, will pay attention to this year's congress session, analysts say.

Chinese congressional decisions on economic policy may impact Taiwan years from now, said Wu Chun-yi, 23, a law student in Taipei who sees China as part of a global job market.

Chinese legislative decisions also reflect trends in financial reforms, which could make the Chinese stock markets more attractive for new public companies and in turn ''marginalise'' Taiwan's markets, said Cheng Cheng-mount, an economist with Citigroup in Taipei.

REUTERS AKJ DS1345