Growing tensions across the Taiwan Strait will not likely impact the close economic relationship between the two sides, local business leaders said yesterday.
Taiwanese companies have been distancing themselves from politics since China increased its rhetoric against "pro-independence" businesspeople, but business leaders said the threats should have little impact on their bottom line.
"We don't need to panic too much as no Taiwanese business-people [operating in China] ever said they support independence, as Beijing has accused," Kao Chin-yen (
"The two sides should maintain a peaceful relationship and work together to make money for the next 50 years," Kao told reporters after attending a meeting held by the non-profit Third Wednesday Club.
Beijing said last month that it doesn't welcome Taiwanese businesspeople who make money in China and then go back home to support Taiwan's independence.
The cross-strait relationship was further strained yesterday as China's Vice Minister of Commerce Ma Xiuhong (馬秀紅) reiterated Beijing's position,though she noted that the legal rights of Taiwanese businesses in China will be protected.
"We have not said that we will restrict anybody's investment," Ma said. "But one thing's for sure -- we will not welcome those Taiwanese businessmen who are resolutely in support of Taiwan independence or undertake separatist activities."
On Tuesday, the new chairman of Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp, Frank Liao (
Shareholders approved the appointment of Liao to replace Hsu Wen-lung (許文龍) to head the world's fourth-biggest flat-panel-display maker, after Hsu was singled out by Beijing as unwelcome.
Tony Cheng (
But China's harsh tone has appeared to stop all talk of political issues in Taiwanese business circles across the Strait, Cheng said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (
Once China chokes off investment, they will lose a huge amount of imports and force Taiwanese companies to leave the market, Ho said.
For the first quarter of this year, Taiwan's exports to China were US$9.994 billion, a 28.1 percent increase from a year earlier, according to ministry statistics.
Chen Lee-in (
Cheng, however, said Taiwanese businesspeople -- who no longer hold an ace in the Chinese market amid an influx of foreign investment there -- need to be cautious about political pressure.
"Many were saying that local governments in China will ignore the political stance and open their arms to Taiwanese enterprises" Cheng said. "But the thing is, they have excluded Taiwanese investment from the priority list since many large multinational corporations are vying to enter the market."
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
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China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
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