The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday rejected a plan by China to boost economic integration, calling it a cash grab to boost the country’s “deteriorating” business environment and a futile bid to win Taiwanese hearts and minds.
China on Tuesday unveiled steps to turn its coastal Fujian Province into a zone for integrated development.
China is to take a number of “special” policy measures to improve access for Taiwanese enterprises to Chinese-controlled Fujian Province, the Chinese state planner said yesterday.
Photo: Lin Shanchuan, Xinhua via EPA-EFE
China is to deepen integrated development of Xiamen and Kinmen County, including the acceleration of gas, electricity and transportation links between the two, Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Vice Chairman Cong Liang (叢亮) told a news conference in Beijing.
The council yesterday said this “unilateral” plan was just another attempt to win over Taiwanese that would not work.
China is trying to promise equal treatment and economic benefits “as a cover to win over and entice our people and companies to go to China and integrate into its systems, regulations and norms, to accept the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership,” it said.
“This is totally wishful thinking,” it added.
China is suffering from economic problems, systemic risks in its financial system and a “deteriorating business environment,” the council said.
“This is obviously an attempt to attract Taiwanese funds and talent to China to boost its internal economy,” it said.
China supports the idea of allowing Kinmen access to Xiamen’s new airport, Cong said.
He added that Beijing also supports new energy cooperation between Taiwan and Ningde, a city north of Xiamen.
Opening up an experimental development zone in Pingtan, China’s closest point to Taiwan proper, would also be expedited, he said.
China also aims to build a cross-strait high-speed railway “at an early date,” he said, plans which Beijing had previously announced and Taipei has rejected.
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