China reached out a hand to Taiwan yesterday, offering Taiwanese investors in China US$19 billion in financing over the next three years, the latest in a flurry of economic diplomacy by Beijing.
Ties between China and Taiwan have warmed since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May.
Last Monday the two sides opened direct daily passenger flights, new shipping routes and postal links for the first time in six decades.
Taiwanese investors have poured billions into China since a detente began some three decades ago, lured by a common culture and language and cheap Chinese labor.
DOWNTURN
But many Taiwanese companies in China have been feeling the pinch from the global economic slowdown, dependent as they are on customers in Europe and the US and their orders for everything from artificial Christmas trees to computers.
Taiwan Affairs Office Director Wang Yi (王毅) told a meeting with Taiwanese politicians in Shanghai that three banks would provide 130 billion yuan (US$18.99 billion) in financing.
“Compatriots on both sides are part of the same family. We feel the same pain at this current time of economic difficulties in Taiwan,” Wang said.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (中國工商銀行) and Bank of China (中國銀行) would provide 50 billion yuan each, he said.
China Development Bank (國家開發銀行) would provide 30 billion yuan, in addition to another 30 billion yuan pledged previously, Wang said.
He provided no other details of the financing.
PURCHASES
China would also buy US$2 billion in flat screen monitors from Taiwanese companies, Wang said.
China would back its firms to invest in Taiwan.
“The mainland [sic] will continue looking at ways to increase cooperation across the strait and take measures hand in hand to cope with the global economic crisis,” Wang said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Deputy Chairman Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) told reporters in Shanghai he welcomed China’s moves.
“At the time of this global financial tsunami and when both economies are facing a downturn, I feel that these are very strong measures, and this is especially so for the financing available for Taiwanese business in China,” Tseng said.
China also agreed to enhance cross-strait agricultural and fishing cooperation, and initiate negotiations to protect China-bound investments made by Taiwanese businesses while encouraging mutual participation on infrastructure projects in both countries and facilitating the normalization of trade ties with Taiwan and China, among many other consensuses reached at yesterday’s forum, where 400 representatives from both sides attended, Wang said.
China has so far suffered less from the global economic crisis than its neighbors and is presenting itself as a stabilizing force in the region.
Earlier this month Chinese leaders announced a nearly US$30 billion currency swap facility to help stabilize the South Korean won and took part in a trilateral summit to discuss the crisis with South Korea and Japan.
On Friday, Hong Kong said Beijing had agreed to a package of 14 measures to aid the Special Administrative Region, including a currency swap facility, an easing of travel restrictions and the opening of more of China’s services sector to Hong Kong.
In recent years China has used economic assistance to Hong Kong to boost support for pro-Beijing politicians in the territory. Aid to Taiwan could help sway public opinion there toward Beijing’s goal of eventual unification.
The ruling parties also proposed broadening financial links including permitting Taiwanese banks to upgrade their status in China, which would allow them to provide financial services.
A consensus was reached that the two sides should establish a financial supervisory mechanism and provide a currency clearance system, Tseng said at the conclusion of a weekend forum. The meeting will offer a blueprint for further government-level talks after a nine-year suspension.
KMT officials and their Chinese counterparts concluded the meeting, which was held to expand direct financial ties as their economies face a worsening global recession. Taiwanese businesspeople have already invested an estimated US$150 billion in China and have been clamoring for Taiwanese financial companies to be permitted to offer services to ease access to financing and capital.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique