The government has started to investigate whether the activities of Centaline Property, a China-based conglomerate, in Taipei to attract local businesses to invest in China are against regulations, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) vice chairman David Huang (黃偉峰) said yesterday.
"We sent officials, together with officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, to the venue where they were supposed to have had activities today, but we found that they have canceled the schedule," Huang told a press conference.
Huang made the remarks in the wake of reports by Chinese-language newspapers yesterday that an official with Centaline Property invited Taiwanese busi-nesspeople in the catering trade to invest in Kunshan, a city in Jiangsu Province.
"Centaline Property planned to establish a Taiwanese snack street in Jiangsu at the expense of 280 million to 320 million yuan (US$34.65 million to US$39.6 million)," deputy director-general of Centaline Wang Zhenguo (王振國) was quoted as saying.
Wang had said that Centaline was also considering duplicating Taiwan's night markets in cities such as Shanghai and Nanjing after the snack street is finished.
Acting on instructions of Jason Hui (許世壇), the executive director of Centaline Property, Wang came to Taiwan with the purpose to sign a cooperative agreement with a local catering business.
Hui was two years ago prohibited from entering Taiwan for five years, after he publicly encouraged Taiwanese businesses to move to China.
In accordance with regulations, the government prohibits Chinese citizens from promoting any business involving real-estate investments in Taiwan.
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