The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) urged China yesterday not to mix politics with business in response to an editorial in the Communist Party's mouthpiece People's Daily that Beijing does not welcome pro-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) businesspeople.
The editorial accused Hsu Wen-lung (
MAC Chairman Joseph Wu (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"Beijing's deeds should be consistent with its words," Wu said.
China has a political motive in ordering its official media outlet to carry a front-page editorial attacking Hsu, who is also a senior advisor to President Chen Shui-bian (
The council is watching to see whether the attack on Hsu is an isolated case, Chiu said.
"Beijing has said it would not politicize trade issues. It should abide by its word and protect Taiwanese businesspeople's investments in China, rather than causing unnecessary trouble for them," Chiu said.
Hsu said yesterday he was not surprised Beijing has again singled him out for character assassination. After the 2000 presidential election, Hsu's petrochemical plant in Jiangsu Province encountered problems with unannounced "audits" and "environmental management" inspections from Chinese officials.
"I respect China's right to exercise its freedom of speech. But for the benefit of global economic development, I wish Beijing could separate politics from trade in handling its relationship with Taiwan," the businessman said.
To boost the competitiveness of Taiwanese businesses based in China, Hsu has been lobbying for the implementation of the three cross-strait direct links -- trade, transportation and postal services.
Hsu also defended himself against the newspaper's accusation that he used money he made in China to further his "other aims."
"Decades ago, Taiwan's cheap labor attracted US and Japanese companies to use Taiwan as a production base. Their investment helped create an economic miracle in Taiwan," said Hsu.
"Now Taiwan is using China and Vietnam as production bases. That should create win-win situations for Taiwan, China and Vietnam. Cross-strait trade will only suffer if Taiwan and China keep emphasizing their political differences," he added.
Frank Liao (
"Many years ago, Mr. Hsu decided to retire at the age of 70. He resigned from the Chi Mei Corporation on May 10, and plans to retire as chairman of Chi Mei Optoelectronics on June 15," Liao said.
Wang Ya-kang (汪雅康), secretary-general of the Chinese National Federation of Industries, the members of which have investments in China, said it remains to be seen whether the report would affect pro-DPP Taiwanese businesspeople's operations in China.
"We need to observe whether China's policies towards Taiwanese businesspeople will be in line with what the report said ... We wish politics would not be mixed with business," Wang said.
The DPP criticized China for trying to force Chen Shui-bian to accept the "one China" principle by oppressing Taiwanese businessmen based in China.
The pro-independence Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) praised Hsu's political stance and said he set a good example for China- based Taiwanese businesspeople.
Meanwhile, the newspaper's editorial triggered heated discussions on the Web site of China's state-run Xinhua agency.
Online users listed the names of more than 20 Taiwanese singers and entertainers in an Internet chat room, calling for Chinese fans to boycott products and concerts, saying that they were pro-green camp figures.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching