New Power Party (NPP) Chairman Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) yesterday criticized Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) plan to establish a free economic pilot zone in the city, saying that it would be an economic version of China’s “one country, two systems” framework.
“A free economic pilot zone would make Chinese businesses happy, but definitely not Taiwanese and Taiwanese businesses,” Chiu wrote on Facebook. “In fact, it would be a pilot zone for the one country, two systems framework.”
His remarks were in response to former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), who on Saturday said that the NPP and the Sunflower movement were undermining the plan.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
“The NPP and the Sunflower movement have ripped apart what Taiwan needs the most: a free economic pilot zone,” Chu wrote.
If the NPP continues to block the plan with the Democratic Progressive Party, Taiwan’s economy, which is highly dependent on free trade, would remain in a dead end, he said.
“The concept of a pilot zone is perhaps difficult to explain in a single question-and-answer session, but it cannot be denied that it would be a great opportunity to improve Taiwan’s economy,” he said, an apparent reference to Han facing questions at a city council meeting on Friday.
Footage has been shared widely on the Internet showing Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷) of the NPP asking Han for details about the pilot zone, with Han repeatedly saying that he would “bring prosperity to Kaohsiung.”
“Chu and Han have again proven to Taiwanese that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) does not understand and does not want people to understand what a free economic pilot zone is,” Chiu wrote.
All they do is hide behind slogans about bringing prosperity to the nation, he said.
“The KMT only knows one thing: reliance on China. So it really does not matter to it what a free economic pilot zone is and whether it would be a Trojan horse” for China, he said.
A free economic pilot zone would be an economic version of the “one country, two systems” framework and could give Chinese businesses inside the zone an unfair advantage over Taiwanese businesses outside it, he said.
While Chinese companies could improve their brand image by manufacturing products in the zone and labeling them as “made in Taiwan,” it could undermine Taiwan’s reputation, he said.
If a pilot zone were full of Chinese companies and the US were to take actions against their products, Taiwan would likely be affected, he said.
In addition, the pilot zone would create ways for Chinese to skirt cross-strait laws and enter Taiwan more easily, he said.
If the KMT believed existing laws posed unnecessary barriers to international trade, it could amend them instead of setting up a pilot zone, he said.
A draft of the proposal was submitted last month to the Legislative Yuan by the KMT, but several government agencies have raised concerns over it.
Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) has said that the plan could cause concerns in the US over the potential for Chinese manufacturers to skirt trade restrictions.
Labor groups have said the government needs to consider the risk to Taiwan’s economy if Chinese firms were to move assembly work to a zone to disguise the country of manufacture of exported goods.
Additional reporting by Ko Yu-hao
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