Closer economic and trade ties with China have not helped improve Taiwan’s economy or Taiwanese people’s lives, but have instead created inequitable distribution of wealth, a former chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said.
Taiwan and China last week held a fourth round of cross-strait talks in Taichung. A total of 12 agreements, including three from the latest Taichung talks, have been forged between the two sides since the first round of talks in June last year to increase economic cooperation.
Hung Chi-chang (洪奇昌), who chaired the SEF when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was in power, said the lack of apparent benefits from closer ties has led many people to feel that cross-strait development has progressed too quickly, and he urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government to address public misgivings.
Hung said many people thought ties with China proceeded too slowly before President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration in May last year and too fast afterward.
“The reason for such a perception is that the public does not think society has felt economic growth or a substantive improvement in their lives through closer cross-strait ties,” Hung said.
People also feel relations between Taiwan and China have grown too close because their expectations have not been met, he said.
That, coupled with the perception that the benefits accrued by large enterprises from closer cross-strait ties have not filtered down to other layers of society, have resulted in a concern over the unequal distribution of the economic gains made through closer cross-strait ties, he said.
He also said that Taiwan’s international trade was already greater than GDP, and that Taiwan’s original equipment manufacturing-oriented industries should transform or upgrade.
Taiwan’s financial structure is not sound, with tax revenues accounting for only 13 percent of GDP, compared with 18 percent in the past, he said. In contrast, the figure is about 35 percent in Scandinavian countries, which often place high in international competitiveness rankings.
Taiwan’s outstanding government debt ratio is also approaching its legal ceiling, which he said would be a potential threat to Taiwan’s national competitiveness.
Meanwhile, Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) on Friday countered criticism that the talks have put a dent in Taiwanese sovereignty and could endanger some local industrial sectors.
Taiwan has held several rounds of talks with China without undermining the country’s sovereignty, Lai said.
“All the talks have been conducted with the aim of safeguarding national sovereignty, promoting industrial development and taking care of people’s lives,” she said.
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