By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Prominent Taiwanese baseball figures have been named for the playing and coaching rosters for China’s new professional baseball league, prompting concerns that Beijing is using the sport to expand its political reach, as well as fears that Taiwan would lose a lot of talent across the Strait.
Chinese Professional Baseball (CPB) held its first player draft in Shenzhen on Wednesday. The five founding franchises selected 57 players for the inaugural season, which is opens on Jan. 1, the World Baseball Softball Confederation reported.
Former Fubon Guardians outfielder Wang Shih-tsung (王詩聰) was selected by the Hunan Province-based Changsha Want Want Happy club.
Photo: Screen grab from the Chinese Professional Baseball’s Facebook page
CPB officials and club owners have reached out to active and former players from Taiwan’s CPBL, Taiwanese media reported.
Earlier in the week, the CPB announced that Lu Wen-sheng (呂文生) would be head coach for the Fujian Province-based Fuzhou Sea Knights.
Lu coached the Uni-President Lions to four CPBL championships from 2007 to 2009 and in 2011.
The CPB also confirmed Wu Chun-liang (吳俊良) as head coach for Want Want Happy. From 2009 to 2021, Wu was pitching coach for three CPBL clubs, the Lions, the Lamigo Monkeys and the Fubon Guardians.
The Fujian-based Xiamen Dolphins named Tsai Chung-kuang (蔡重光) as head coach, a lefty who played six seasons in the CPBL from 1997 to 2002 for the now-defunct China Times Eagles and the Sinon Bulls — a former name of the Guardians. Tsai was later a pitching coach for the Bulls.
The CPB is looking elsewhere for talent as well.
The Shanghai Dragons named South Korean Koo Dae-Sung as head coach. Koo is a former MLB pitcher, having played for the New York Mets. He also played in South Korea’s KBO for the Hanwha Eagles and the Orix BlueWave of Nippon Professional Baseball.
The Shenzhen Blue Sox named Chinese-American Ray Chang (張寶樹) as its manager as. Chang represented China at major international competitions.
The CPB earlier this month sparked controversy when it announced the league format and the names of the five clubs, which initially included the “Shanghai Brothers.” The logo for the team was primarily yellow and featured an elephant, sparking ire in Taiwan, as the branding was similar to the CPBL’s CTBC Brothers.
The CBL later denied that it had a team called the Shanghai Brothers.
A message announcing the team did not originate from the league, the Taipei-based Baseball Federation of Asia said on Nov. 11.
However, sports experts said that the CPB Brothers team was part of a “united front” strategy to lure Taiwanese players and coaches to China, including through higher wages, with the ultimate goal of supplanting the CPBL.
Deputy Minister of Sports Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) at the time said: “Baseball is Taiwan’s national game, over its many decades of development, our citizens have forged a strong bond to the game.”
“Taiwanese should continue to support baseball here at the professional, amateur and school levels, to protect our cherished game, cultivate our young talent, and boost Taiwanese clubs and the national team,” Cheng added.
There are concerns that Taiwanese businesses would be enticed by China’s large market to invest in the CPB, commentators said.
The Changsha club is backed by the Want Want Group, a Taiwanese conglomerate headed by Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明).
Chinese media reported that the CPB’s inaugural season would start on Jan. 1 and end the following month, with a summer season planned to start in July.
The league hopes more investments would allow it to be fully professional in three years, reports said.