Worries have surfaced that Taiwan's China policy, if left unchanged, may hurt the competitiveness of Taiwan's semiconductor industry.
A leading Taipei technology-sector analyst has even painted a rather grim scenario in the event that Taiwan fails to open its doors to its belligerent neighbor.
Andrew Lu (
"China should be seen as a hinterland. One should not worry too much," Lu was quoted as saying yesterday. China's main competitiveness lies in its infrastructure and cheap labor, and Taiwanese technology firms should take advantage of it, he was quoted as saying.
While the ban remains, several Taiwanese businessmen have charted out ambitious chip-related plans in China. Wang Wen-yang (
Other analysts agree that China will represent a major threat to the competitiveness of the Taiwan's semiconductor industry in the next three to five years.
"In the meantime, we better make the necessary preparations," said a semiconductor analyst at another foreign securities house in Taipei.
Neal Stovicek, head of research at National Securities (
"We will be exporting capital there," he said. "It is part of the economic development. Economics always wins over politics."
It is little wonder then that the opposition KMT has changed its tune recently, calling for the "reassessment and readjustment" of the controversial policy put in place by former president Lee Teng-hui (
Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), former premier and currently vice chairman of the KMT, has recently called for a "Taiwan-China common market" -- a loose imitation of the EU.
"For Taiwan, changes in the investment environment have caused traditional industries to migrate to China -- a trend that is likely to be repeated by technology intensive industries," he was quoted as saying in the Asian Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
"The so-called "no haste, be patient" policy needs to be reassessed and readjusted to meet this challenge," Siew said.
Siew's argument is one of the strongest statements in support of closer integration with China that has come out from the higher echelons of the KMT. But opposition to closer integration continues to remains strong.
Chen Shih-meng (
Chen said relaxing restrictions on investments in China will spell trouble for traditional industries.
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