Xu Qinduo

    xuqinduo@gmail.com

    TAOBAO has been put in the spotlight lately in Taiwan over whether the e-commerce giant is playing a political role to unify China. The question came from one post in a local forum on the island referring to Taobao requiring customers to select “Taiwan Province” when you type in your shipping address. If you do so, as the argument goes, the move could mean, ideologically, that the mainland and Taiwan are being unified!

    The sensitive issue of sovereignty does not pop up out of nowhere. Taobao has been a perfect story of how mainland companies grow their businesses in Taiwan. Statistics from Taobao in 2012 show that, among the top 10 cities with the highest individual spending on average, four of them are located in Taiwan. The Singles’ Day — Nov. 11 of last year — witnessed a 190 percent increase in sales in Taiwan.

    Behind those impressive figures are hundreds of thousands of individual customers who benefit from shopping on Taobao. A very popular TV show in Taiwan by the name of “From Taiwan to the World” had a special discussion on Taobao and its rapidly growing popularity among young people. Their conclusion? The goods you buy from Taobao are cheaper than local online stores, the shipping costs are minimum, and the delivery service is speedy.

    Those who oppose unification with the mainland warn that Taobao must be a conspiracy from the mainland and people in Taiwan should not fall into the trap. They say people should not trade “their country” for a better shopping experience.

    However, the majority of people seems to ignore the alarmist view and refuse to overanalyze the “Taiwan Province” phrase. They argue there’s no point of sticking to the “sovereignty” ideology while keeping an empty stomach. Others protest the permeance of “Taiwan independence” politics on business platforms.

    Call it the power of Taobao, or the soft power of China.

    Related to the charm of Taobao is the premiere of the first episode of the third season of the detective show “Sherlock” on Jan. 2 on the mainland. It became available on Youku, the biggest online video-sharing site in China, only two hours after the show hit the screen in Britain.

    Irritated by the agony of not being able to watch the return of “Sherlock,” Taiwan Internet users complained about the “discrimination” they received from Youku. One message reads that “Taiwan is totally marginalized. Isn’t that there’s only one China? I would like to report to Mr. Xi Jinping about Youku’s practice of dividing the nation!” Others complained that there’s nobody to blame but Taiwan itself, which refuses to acknowledge it’s part of China.

    Taobao is not alone. Mainland-produced software, TV shows and smartphones are also gaining increasing recognition in the island. WeChat is one of the most popular apps for mobile users in Taiwan. The most prominent product among them should be Xiaomi smartphones, which are known for their low cost but powerful functions.

    Local media reported that Xiaomi’s Red Rice smartphones saw the sale of 20,000 units in 54 seconds on Jan. 13. Yes, less than one minute! That was the fourth round of bulk online sales in Taiwan since Xiaomi’s debut in 2013.

    Early last year, I wrote a piece on China’s growing soft power with a focus on the production of TV shows, such as “I Am A Singer.” But this latest round of popular Chinese products represent a different category and with a different nature. Taobao, WeChat, Xiaomi are all based on technology — Internet, software, hardware — and excel at innovation. Take Xiaomi for example, the latest figure shows that it outsold Samsung to become China’s top-selling smartphone brand in December, thanks to the enthusiastic participation of its users in creating new functions.

    Soft power is more than TV dramas, movies, education and culture; it’s also about technology. With more than 30 years’ breakneck economic growth and tremendous investment in research and development, it may be the time to see the charm of Chinese technological progresses, such as the Yutu moon rover, Taobao, Xiaomi and many others in the years ahead.

    (The author is a current affairs commentator with China Radio International.)