That figure was much higher than the highest corresponding ratio over the same period for Singapore, South Korea, Japan and the US at 1.71 percent, 0.44 percent, 0.1 percent and 0.02 percent respectively, the president said.
The ratio of China-bound investment to total outbound investment, meanwhile, more than doubled from 33.93 percent in 2000 to 71.05 percent in 2005, he said.
"Unrestricted, unsupervised investment in China over the years has been the main factor in the appearance of an M-shaped society in Taiwan," he said.
Continued intensive investment in China would not help ease the impact engendered by an M-shaped society, he said, adding that it would only exacerbate current economic difficulties instead.
The president highlighted four major goals -- increased investment in Taiwan, the creation of more jobs, a narrowing of the urban-rural divide and the narrowing of the gap between rich and poor -- as key to transforming the nation's M-shaped society.
Later yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma said that such investments had contributed to the nation's foreign trade surplus.
Without the NT$60 billion (US$1.8 billion) trade surplus resulting from the investment in China, the nation would show a trade deficit, he said.
"Cross-strait trade was driven by investment and many imports of Taiwanese products come from China-based Taiwanese businesses. I don't know whether it is that Chen has no knowledge of these things or that he simply pretends not to know," Ma said in Taipei.
Ma shared his doubts on Chen's promise to bolster the nation's democratic spirit by holding regular elections.
The president has misunderstood the true meaning of democracy, he said.
"There are 111 countries that hold regular elections, but many of them are not democratic countries," Ma said.
"Some elected politicians govern their countries with administrative orders and stir up ethnic tension. Similar situations have occurred in the third world and in Germany. But that's not democracy," he said.
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
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