President Chen Shui-bian's (
Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), the convener of Chen's newly formed economic advisory panel who once served as premier during the Kuomintang administration prior to 2000, made the remark in an interview.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Siew noted that cross-strait relations are critical to Taiwan's medium and long-term economic development.
According to Siew, Taiwan should endeavor to thrive on the vast Chinese market and never allow the "one China" controversy hold up bilateral economic exchanges.
"Taiwan cannot afford to ignore the immense [Chinese] market while seeking to become either an Asia-Pacific regional operation hub or a global resourcing center," Siew said.
Siew added that closer cross-strait trade and economic ties will certainly benefit Taiwan in the long run.
Despite its opposition to Beijing's "one China" principle, which downgrades Taiwan to the level of a province under the People's Republic of China, Siew went on, Taiwan need not drag its feet on this issue.
Trade issues are related to markets, not politics, Siew said, adding that the "one China" dispute should be shelved while dealing with cross-strait trade and economic problems.
As to the opening of direct cross-strait transportation links, Siew said now is not a good time to push for such an initiative.
In his view, Siew continued, the establishment of direct shipping and air links involve the exercise of public authority and therefore requires negotiations between the two sides to map out viable working terms.
At the moment, Siew said, the two sides lack mutual understanding and trust necessary for such talks.
"Without mutual trust, any talks would lead nowhere," Siew said. "I think we may have to wait for some time before the two sides can sit down to talk about the direct-shipping and air-links issue."
Until the time is ripe for such talks, Taiwan should use all available means to create a better cross-strait trade environment, Siew said.
First and foremost, he went on, Taiwan should pave the way for opening direct cross-strait chartered cargo flights to boost Taiwan's function as a regional trans-shipment center.
Touching on cross-strait relations, Siew said that although Beijing has pushed its "united front" campaign to woo Taiwanese people for many years, it still fails to understand the real desires of the country's people.
But he said optimistically that over the long term, the two sides will be able to gradually forge rapprochement through dialogue and peaceful exchanges in various fields.
"With wisdom, sincerity and patience, the two sides will eventually settle their disputes," he added.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day