The business environment in China is getting riskier for Taiwanese, the Mainland Affairs Council said, citing reports of fraud, unexpected tax audits and arbitrary land taxes.
Beijing and local governments in China have been unexpectedly revoking tax discounts and other incentives for Taiwanese, the council said, adding that some Taiwanese businesses have been ordered to pay as much as 200 million yuan (US$29.22 million) in back taxes and interest.
The council has published a list of 23 risks Taiwanese businesspeople operating in China face, the majority of which are related to government interference in investments and operations.
Beijing has been increasingly aggressive in its demands for Taiwanese operating in China to be outspoken about supporting its “one China” principle, the council said.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) has said numerous times that it “supports increased investment in ‘the mainland’ by Taiwanese, but also hopes Taiwanese will take greater responsibility in supporting the [so-called] ‘1992 consensus’ and opposing Taiwanese independence,” it said, citing the TAO.
The “1992 consensus” refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Beijing that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means. Former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) said in 2006 that he had made up the term in 2000.
About half of the disputes handled through the Cross-Strait Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement are related to land rights, with the Chinese authorities often expropriating land for road construction or other public works, the council said.
Some Taiwanese businesspeople have been denied access to land they were formally promised, while others have been given only a portion of the land they were owed, and later had their business’ land expropriated by local governments, the council said.
Discounts for Taiwanese companies also frequently and unpredictably change in China, the council said, citing the Chinese National Energy Administration’s announcement in May that it would end subsidies for solar panel manufacturers.
The announcement had a major effect on Taiwanese factories that produce panels in China, including Nanke Changjing, which was forced to suspend its operations, the council said.
There are also many businesses that were forced to quit the Chinese market due to rising rent and labor costs, undercutting and counterfeiting by Chinese companies, and Beijing’s support for Chinese firms, it said.
A Taiwanese businessman who established a factory to produce robots in Dongguan fell victim to tunneling by his investors and was forced to file a lawsuit, it said.
Another who had established a health consultancy business and had signed a contract with a hospital had the contract canceled by the hospital’s management, forcing him to seek legal action, it added.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
RSS