The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held their fourth economic forum over the weekend in Shanghai. Since Council for Economic Planning and Development Vice Chairman San Gee (單驥) is a political appointee, his participation in the forum was controversial. Premier Liu Chao-shiuan’s (劉兆玄) announcement that civil servants were allowed to visit China was an attempt to justify the KMT-CCP meetings after the fact.
The Regulations Governing Entry Permission to Mainland China for Government Employees and Persons with Special Status in the Taiwan Area (台灣地區公務員及特定身分人員進入大陸地區許可辦法) stipulate that political appointees can only visit China to take part in conferences organized by international bodies. The KMT-CCP forum hardly qualifies.
This is not the first time that a political appointee has broken the law to visit China. Financial Supervisory Commission Vice Chairwoman Lee Jih-chu’s (李紀珠) attendance at a cross-strait financial seminar last month was another example.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration is committed to promoting cross-strait exchanges, but it must draw up supplementary measures to make sure they are legal. The Mainland Affairs Council should have amended the law earlier. Since it did not, the KMT has only itself to blame for the criticism it has received.
The main obstacle for civil servants visiting China lies in the terms of the Regulations Governing Entry Permission to Mainland China for Government Employees and Persons with Special Status in the Taiwan Area. But since this regulation is an executive order, it can be amended by the Executive Yuan simply by public announcement. Even if it were necessary to amend the Act Governing Relations between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), which can only be done by the legislature, this would not be hard since the KMT holds a legislative majority.
Considering that cross-strait exchanges are a mainstay of current policy, one would expect the government to remove legal obstacles in an orderly way ahead of time. The current confusion highlights the fact that the administration is in a rush to put all its eggs in the China basket. But China may not be the safe haven from the global economic storm that the KMT government imagines.
Jia Qinglin (賈慶林), chairman of China’s People’s Political Consultative Conference says that China wants to sign a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement with Taiwan. The pact would be modeled on the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) Beijing signed with Hong Kong in 2003. Beijing wants to create a single Chinese market, using economic union to pave the way for political union.
The CEPA only brought transitory benefits to Hong Kong. Its costs have outweighed its benefits. Now that the financial tsunami has hit, the economic bubble has burst and Hong Kong’s ailing economy is more dependent on China than ever.
Taiwan’s leaders should open their eyes to the fact that China, too, is suffering from the global economic downturn, and many Taiwanese businesses with investments in China are pulling out. This is hardly the time to be rushing headlong into China.
Rather than putting their faith in a shaky Chinese market, the government should try to boost domestic demand and salvage the economy by investing in Taiwan.
US President Donald Trump has gotten off to a head-spinning start in his foreign policy. He has pressured Denmark to cede Greenland to the United States, threatened to take over the Panama Canal, urged Canada to become the 51st US state, unilaterally renamed the Gulf of Mexico to “the Gulf of America” and announced plans for the United States to annex and administer Gaza. He has imposed and then suspended 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico for their roles in the flow of fentanyl into the United States, while at the same time increasing tariffs on China by 10
US President Donald Trump last week announced plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on eight countries. As Taiwan, a key hub for semiconductor manufacturing, is among them, the policy would significantly affect the country. In response, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) dispatched two officials to the US for negotiations, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) board of directors convened its first-ever meeting in the US. Those developments highlight how the US’ unstable trade policies are posing a growing threat to Taiwan. Can the US truly gain an advantage in chip manufacturing by reversing trade liberalization? Is it realistic to
Last week, 24 Republican representatives in the US Congress proposed a resolution calling for US President Donald Trump’s administration to abandon the US’ “one China” policy, calling it outdated, counterproductive and not reflective of reality, and to restore official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, enter bilateral free-trade agreement negotiations and support its entry into international organizations. That is an exciting and inspiring development. To help the US government and other nations further understand that Taiwan is not a part of China, that those “one China” policies are contrary to the fact that the two countries across the Taiwan Strait are independent and
Trying to force a partnership between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and Intel Corp would be a wildly complex ordeal. Already, the reported request from the Trump administration for TSMC to take a controlling stake in Intel’s US factories is facing valid questions about feasibility from all sides. Washington would likely not support a foreign company operating Intel’s domestic factories, Reuters reported — just look at how that is going over in the steel sector. Meanwhile, many in Taiwan are concerned about the company being forced to transfer its bleeding-edge tech capabilities and give up its strategic advantage. This is especially
RSS