Chinese ties vital
In response to Gerrit Van Der Wees’ opinion piece (“China is only holding Taiwan back,” Aug. 11, page 8), we would like to further explain the Republic of China’s cross-strait trade policies and why Taiwan must further integrate with the regional economy.
Steady development of cross-strait trade relations is the key to preserving — rather than undermining — Taiwan’s economic and political autonomy.
Taiwan’s bargaining chips in past negotiations with mainland China all came from its own excellent economic performance. Obviously, this success was not based entirely on the mainland market, but on the establishment of practical and normalized trade relations with mainland China. Such relations are also expected to bring opportunities for Taiwan to integrate closely with the regional economy and accede to multilateral organizations, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
If the economy is not liberalized, opened and transformed fast enough, it will gradually lose its edge and political bargaining chips, to its detriment.
Our modus operandi has always been to further relations with other nations and regional organizations by normalizing cross-strait relations. These two efforts must go hand-in-hand. For example, in the area of tourism, Taiwan has worked to open itself up to the Japanese, South Korean and Southeast Asian markets, in addition to mainland China’s. It will never put all its eggs in one basket. Taiwan, like many countries, regards mainland China as its top trade partner, but this by no means signifies that the mainland has an absolute magnetic hold on Taiwan.
In the area of trade, exports to mainland China (excluding Hong Kong) as a percentage of total exports have held steady at about 26 percent for the past five years. Meanwhile, trade with ASEAN members has steadily grown, with exports to ASEAN rising from 15.2 percent of total exports in 2008 to 19.2 percent last year. These figures demonstrate that Taiwanese exporters’ reliance on the mainland market has in fact remained level over the past several years, and that Taiwan is diversifying its export markets.
If we fail to strengthen ties with the US, Japan and Southeast Asian countries, what we were warned about might become reality — economic over-reliance on the mainland. For instance, one objective of our free economic pilot zone plan is to marry Taiwan’s capital and technologies with those of advanced countries and form a sort of skillful defense against the mainland.
In March, a portion of the public harboring misgivings over the cross-strait services trade agreement formed the student-led Sunflower movement. Essentially, the government has already responded to its demands.
First, the services pact must undergo an item-by-item review and vote. We are still confident that this agreement contains no provisions harmful to Taiwan’s interests.
Second, any future agreements negotiated with the mainland must be subject to a supervisory mechanism that ensures greater transparency and provides more rigorous oversight. This is why we drafted the special bill on monitoring cross-strait agreements and sent it to the legislature. Unfortunately, as it was before the Sunflower movement, this bill has yet to receive substantive review by lawmakers. The opposition continues to boycott the oversight bill and any line-by-line review of the services agreement. Even the Cabinet’s efforts to push the free economic pilot zones have met with resistance.
Our hope is that everyone in Taiwan — regardless of political affiliation or whether they agree with the services pact — will make an effort to discuss these issues in an impartial and mutually respectful manner because we are all members of a civil society. And once a decision is made, we should all have the integrity and demeanor to support and accept that decision. This is key to the continued growth and development of Taiwan’s proud democracy.
Sun Li-chyun
Executive Yuan spokesperson, Republic of China (Taiwan)
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