Allowing Chinese investors to invest in the bridal makeup industry would cause an unprecedented catastrophe for the industry and weaken its ability to be self-sustaining in Taiwan and abroad, a bridal makeup development association in Greater Kaohsiung said.
The industry is among those that would be affected by Taiwan’s signing of a service trade agreement with China on June 21 in Shanghai.
The industry’s workers, known as “bridal makeup secretaries” in Taiwan, travel to brides’ homes and other locations to apply make-up.
Association chairman Cheng Hsiao-chen (鄭曉珍) said President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration’s inking of the cross-strait service pact allowing Taiwanese to set up their own businesses in China was “meaningless.”
Cheng said her industry — along with others — was dissatisfied with the administration’s decision to sign the agreement without first making certain of provisionary measures to safeguard Taiwanese businesses.
According to Cheng, 90 percent of her association’s members are private companies that stay in business primarily by being at the forefront of fashion and making certain they are competitive in terms of technical specialties.
The government should be aware of the risks its policies pose to the economy, but the Ma administration does not seem bothered that Chinese companies may send “poachers” to Taiwan under the guise of “higher level administration staff,” Cheng said.
Under the agreement, an investment of more than US$300,000 would allow a Chinese investor and two staff members to come to Taiwan. Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Woody Duh (杜紫軍) has said that for every additional capital injection of US$500,000, another person may be added to the investor’s entourage, up to a maximum of seven.
China’s bridal makeup industry lags behind its Taiwanese counterpart, according to Cheng, who pointed to the medals each nation received at an international hair and cosmetics competition held in South Korea in May as proof —six gold medals and a bronze for Taiwan versus no medals for China.
“China is in great need of techniques to help its workers boost their skill levels in the hair and beauty industry,” Cheng said.
The Chinese legal system is based more on the whims of the individual rather than the rule of law, implying that China is not below commercial espionage to get what it wants, Cheng said.
“The Ma administration needs to make certain that local industries and their techniques and technologies are protected,” Cheng said.
“Unless the government is willing to include clauses ‘forbidding the employment of Chinese technicians,’ it should not be opening up the hair and beauty industry to China,” she said.
Cheng added that Taiwanese face great risk when either working or doing business in China and few Taiwanese hairdressers or beauticians are interested in working there.
She said China still harbors considerable enmity for Taiwan and its government, citing an incident last year at a competition in Indonesia that she and a group of students attended.
As a member of the Asia Pacific Hair and Cosmetology Association, Taiwan had the right to fly its national flag on stage at the event, but China protested, Cheng said.
“It was due to the tireless work of diplomatic personnel in the Taipei Economic and Trade Office in Indonesia that Taiwan’s flag flew proudly that day,” she said.
“The Ma administration should be more careful when dealing with policies that bring Taiwan into contact with a still belligerent and hostile China,” Cheng said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard