Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Chen Ming-tong (
During a meeting of the Home and Nations Committee yesterday, 46 KMT legislators, including Lee Chi-chu (
The amendment proposes that the government not be permitted to bar Taiwanese businesspeople from investing in mass produced items in China because to do so would violate international treaties.
Lee said the amendment would benefit Taiwan's semiconductor, liquid-crystal-display panel, packaging and petrochemical industries.
But Chen told the committee meeting that the government had considered international treaties, national defense and the economy when it barred investments in those industries in China.
"I don't think it is really a thorough proposal if legislators who proposed this amendment simply considered international treaties as the only factor," he said.
"The amendment would have widespread impact. We need to be meticulous about it," he said.
He said government polls over the past three years had showed that more than 50 percent of the respondents expect the government to tighten restrictions on China-bound investments. Only around 30 percent of respondents thought the restrictions should be loosened.
"Judging from these surveys, most people think it is necessary for the government to tighten regulations on investments, otherwise core industries or major high-tech processes will be moved from Taiwan to China," he said.
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator David Huang (
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuo Jung-chung (
Lee said that although Taiwan's information technology industries faced massive competition from their international counterparts, they had been hindered by the restrictions on China-bound investment, which had reduced their competitiveness.
"It is essential, therefore, to allow those items," Lee said.
The committee chairman, Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator Tsai Hau (
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so