China’s economy is worse than official data indicate, as some US and British think tanks have speculated that its unemployment rate might be three times greater than reported, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) consultants said yesterday.
China’s economic growth has slowed as a result of rough structural adjustments in its “supply-side structural reform” and hostile market environments for private businesses due to an ongoing US-China trade dispute, an academic said at a meeting of the council’s consultants.
The downturn has caused social and political problems, such as unemployment and a widening wealth gap, the consultants said, adding that these problems might threaten Taiwan economically and politically, due to frequent cross-strait trade and economic exchanges.
Maintaining social stability and curbing the development of other internal disruptive forces are now Beijing’s top priority, meaning that it would apply a more low-profile approach in the handling of external disputes, they said.
If the US-China tensions escalate and the Chinese economy continues to slow down, Beijing would then take a softer line against Taiwan’s sovereignty, which would benefit the nation if more Taiwanese businesspeople and students return to Taiwan, the consultants said, but added that Taiwan should remain cautious, as China’s economic development is nonlinear.
China would aggressively recruit high-tech talent in Taiwan to make up for its deficiencies in the field should the trade dispute against the US turn into a technology war, they said.
The economic slowdown has reduced Taiwan’s exports to China and increased investment risks there, while the slump of the Chinese yuan has added uncertainties to Taiwan’s financial industry, they said.
Politically, China’s slow economy and ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have heightened pessimism in Chinese society, which could lead to Beijing using Taiwan as an outlet to divert its built-up dissatisfaction; for example, by restricting Taiwan’s space in the international arena, the consultants said.
Such additional cross-strait uncertainties would indirectly lower the incentives for foreign investors to come to Taiwan, they said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods