Recently Beijing officials have been advising businessmen that they should avoid seeking Taiwan trading partners because they are considered to be supporting independence for Taiwan. These public warnings were given in Beijing and in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong government, through Anson Chan (陳安生), took the unusual step of publicly rebuking the PRC official who had made the statement in Hong Kong. The complaint clearly had little effect, as the same warning was subsequently reiterated in Beijing. This lack of reaction from the business community and governments elsewhere could be not only setting a precedent harmful to Taiwan but may be indicative of the PRC's behavior even after it enters WTO.
Taiwan businessmen with investments in the PRC are in no position to voice complaints. If they defend their right to take part in Taiwan's political process, their investments in China could be at risk. At the same time, if they are conciliatory in China, they are seen back at home as putting profit above principle. To other companies, their problem stands as a vivid example of the risks involved in doing business with China.
For the government, this development must be of some concern also. Will business leaders become reluctant to show support for the Chen Shui-bian (
In the US, there have been limited media reports of these warnings, but as yet no official comment. At this point it does not involve US companies and doubtless there must be some reluctance to be lectured yet again by Beijing on meddling in "internal affairs."
But if this new policy of Beijing should develop to a point where it has a serious impact on Taiwan's economy (and even more if it comes to involve US companies), there could be calls to show much greater concern based on the Taiwan Relations Act. The Act includes "boycotts or embargoes" as "other than peaceful means" that would be of "grave concern to the US."
In the broader international arena, the fact that both the PRC and Taiwan are seeking WTO membership complicates any economic dispute between the two sides even more than is likely once the two are in the organization.
The international community obviously has accepted China's demand that it must enter the WTO before Taiwan. The US publicly maintains the principle that Taiwan should be accepted whenever it meets the organization's requirements, but tacitly has gone along with the international understanding. To a certain extent, so has Taiwan since it could not do much about it.
The uncertainty about Taiwan's entry means that this arrangement [will there be a consensus of WTO members to accept Taiwan after the PRC entry, even if the PRC opposes?] must be handled with great care, especially the delicate issues regarding security concerns in its economic relations with the PRC.
How it can handle what is effectively a threat of boycott by the PRC against selected Taiwan firms, while taking into consideration its pending WTO application is not an easy task.
Doubtless, China's boycott of Taiwan companies it considers undesirable will be defended as an "internal affair." But once China becomes a WTO member, can it continue to do so? Taiwan, irrespective of the fig-leaf name it had to adopt for WTO purposes, will itself also become a full member. A dispute between two members that would come under WTO jurisdiction can not, in theory at least, be swept under the rug as an "internal affair." But then, neither should membership be based on anything other than economic considerations, and yet the PRC has successfully insisted that political considerations must be included [ie, it must enter before Taiwan].
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