On Monday, Chinese-language newspapers quoted Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice presidential candidate Vincent Siew (
It seems Siew doesn't fully grasp the inner workings of the EU.
First, this year the EU gained two new members, Bulgaria and Romania, which puts the total number of EU member states at 27.
Second, economic integration in the EU is built on the basic premise that the 27 sovereign member states all recognize each other and the need to build mutual relationships based on equality and cooperation. They are not permitted to be hostile to each other, which is why they can cooperate on the establishment of a joint European army.
In contrast, China at present has deployed more than 800 ballistic missiles targeting Taiwan on its southern coast and refuses to recognize the Taiwanese government. China's hostile cross-strait policies will make it very difficult to build a cross-strait common market.
Third, the Maastricht Treaty signed by all EU member states gives EU citizens the fundamental rights to move freely, work and live anywhere in the EU.
The title of Article II-75 in the draft EU constitution mandates the "freedom to choose an occupation and right to engage in work."
Item 2 of the text reads: "Every citizen of the Union has the freedom to seek employment, to work, to exercise the right of establishment and to provide services in any Member State."
With the entry of 10 Eastern European nations into the EU in 2004, the lower wage levels in these countries resulted in workers using the right to freedom of movement to move to Germany, France, Italy and other countries with higher standards of living.
At the time, France began seriously debating what was said to be the phenomenon of "Paris being flooded by Polish plumbers."
Many of the workers from the Eastern European member states not only competed with French workers by accepting lower wages, but they also evaded taxes and this caused much disgruntlement among French workers.
The differences in salary structure between Taiwan and China is much greater than the differences between the countries in Eastern and Western Europe. According to the French newspaper Le Monde, in 2005 more than 1,000 workers in the EU textile industry lost their jobs every day because the EU removed the import restrictions on Chinese textile products.
Since Taiwanese and Chinese share the same language and because the two governments have no negotiation mechanism to manage the situation, the creation of a cross-strait common market would lead to a great influx of people from China using the right to free movement to come to Taiwan to work.
Given the lower salary requirements of Chinese workers, salaries in Taiwan would probably plummet, or, in the best-case scenario, would be highly unlikely to rise.
With jobs going to those who were willing to accept lower salaries, one can only wonder what impact Taiwanese unemployment would have on social stability.
For these reasons, it seems quite clear that we should give careful thought to Siew's suggestion for a cross-strait common market.
Wu Chih-chung is secretary-general of the European Union Study Association in Taiwan.
Translated by Lin Ya-ti
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017