Taiwanese farmers declared only one China-bound agricultural project last year, showing that interest in China’s farming sector has cooled, the Council of Agriculture said in a report.
The council compiled the report in response to legislators’ request last year that officials evaluate whether the nation’s agricultural trade secrets are being compromised by Taiwanese farmers working in China.
From 1991 to last year, Taiwan invested US$6.95 billion in Chinese agriculture — broadly defined to include processed products such as food, beverages and leather — through 5,486 investment projects, according to a copy of the report shown by a source to the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
When limiting agriculture to farming, animal husbandry and forestry in the period, Taiwan’s investments from that period were valued at US$524 million in 573 investment projects, mostly taking place in the Chinese provinces of Fujian, Hainan and Shandong, it said.
Beijing in 1997 began courting Taiwanese farmers and investors with the establishment of the Cross-Strait Agricultural Cooperation Experimental Zone, it said, adding that other incentives would be enacted in following years.
Recent examples of investment incentives targeting Taiwan included a program to hire agricultural technical advisers and the so-called “22 forestry and farming measures” promulgated in March last year, it said.
Taiwanese farmers and investors reported 210 investments connected to the making of unprocessed agricultural products in China in 1997, the highest level ever recorded, it said.
The figure dropped to 27 investments in 2002 and 54 investments in 2003, before going through a precipitous decline, it said, adding that the number of investments never exceed eight projects between 2004 to 2019.
However, the amount Taiwan invested in Chinese agriculture — defined as the production of unprocessed agricultural goods — surged to US$80 million in 2020, the highest level ever, it said.
This growth was driven by the technology sector’s involvement in intensive hog farming in China, it said.
Taiwan made 132 patent applications for plant cultivars in China, but only 39, which concerned butterfly orchids, were granted as of last year, it said.
Chinese farmers began cultivating Taiwan’s “Tainung 17” pineapple and several other products following Beijing’s ban on Taiwanese pineapples, but China’s agricultural techniques remain inferior, it said.
Protection of Taiwanese tea cultivars is not possible, as each one is already being grown in China, it said.
China’s business environment is becoming increasingly less attractive due to its trade dispute with the US and its decoupling from the global supply chain, which could trigger an economic downturn, National Taiwan University (NTU) agronomy professor Woo Rhung-jieh (吳榮杰) said.
Intellectual property and patents have long been a source of difficulty when foreigners invest in China, a problem that is likely to persist due to the country’s weak rule of law, NTU agronomy professor Warren Kuo (郭華仁) said.
“China continually changes its policy, and Taiwanese are cheated often enough to know that the rules are rigged. Therefore, they avoid investing in the country,” he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as