Trade across the Taiwan Strait is likely to continue at its current pace despite the outcome of yesterday's legislative elections, which saw the the opposition parties retain their majority in the 225-member Legislative Yuan, according to analysts.
China's growing economic strength leaves the government no choice but to gradually lift bans on cross-strait business regulations, said Chen Lee-in (陳麗瑛), a researcher of China Affairs at the Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research (中經院).
With its growing economic power in recent years, China keeps attracting investors worldwide to its market, and Taiwan is no exception to the hype. It is estimated that over 1 million Taiwanese businesspeople are doing business across the Taiwan Strait.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Finance, Taiwan exported US$58.57 billion in goods and equipment to Hong Kong and China for the first 11 months of the year, which accounts for 36.8 percent -- the largest piece -- of the nation's total exports in the period. The figure represents a 30.8 percent jump from the same period a year ago, the ministry said.
While the pace of greater economic integration with China would likely be boosted by the win by the pan-blue camp, Hsu Sung-ken (許松根), an industrial economist at the Academia Sinica, said the elections results won't have an immediate and direct impact on cross-trade economic policies.
"The key to cross-strait trade is not which political camp wins more seats in the legislature, but China's attitude, that means Beijing's insistence on its `one China' policy," Hsu said.
"Taiwanese people are gradually shifting away from unification with China, and I don't think the pan-blue camp, even Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
On the issue of "three direct links" with China and the lifting of bans against high-tech investment in China, Hsu, an advisor for the government's policymaking Mainland Affairs Council, said the government has removed the US$50 million cap on Taiwanese investment in China and only curbs investment on some critical high-tech sectors, such as 12-inch semiconductor wafer manufacturing.
"No immediate changes are foreseen in this regard, as that decision is up to the government and its ministries, not the legislature," Hsu said.
"Even though the KMT had said before the elections that it wanted to have a say in a Cabinet reshuffle if it wins a majority, I don't think it's up to opposition parties to decide cross-strait trade policies," he said.
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (
Advanced Semiconductor, the world's second-largest chip packaging service provider, and smaller rival Siliconware Precision Industries Co (
TSMC has already constructed a low-end eight-inch wafer factory in Shanghai, which is expected to produce 5,000 units per month by the end of the year.
CIER's Chen said economic co-operation with China becomes even more important when the world is shifting into regional economy, while Taiwan has made limited progress in inking free trade agreements (FTAs) because of pressure from China, Chen said.
So far, Taiwan only has one FTA, with its diplomatic ally Panama.
"Thus it can be seen that deregulating cross-strait business is the only way to go," Chen said.
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But he also didn't expect that will happen too soon.
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Another Taiwanese businessperson in China, who does not want to be named, said he does not pin high expectations on a breakthrough in cross-strait business policies promoted after the reshuffle.
"The legislature is an inefficient and incapable body in resolving sensitive cross-strait issues anyway ... I don't think the election outcome will make any difference," he said.
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
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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