The number of Taiwanese working in China fell for the eighth straight year in 2021, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said this month.
The agency in a report said that 163,000 Taiwanese worked in China in 2021, accounting for 51.1 percent of 319,000 Taiwanese working overseas at the time.
The DGBAS considers Taiwanese to be working overseas if they stay abroad for a total of 90 days in one year, with reference to labor and health insurance records.
Photo: Reuters
The number of Taiwanese working in China in 2021 fell by 76,000 people, or 19.2 percent, from 2019 and 261,000 people, or 61.6 percent, from 2011, the DGBAS said.
In contrast, the number of Taiwanese working in Southeast Asia steadily rose from 2017 to 2019, it said.
Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮), an economics professor at National Central University, said that many Taiwanese businesspeople based in China have since 2018 relocated to Taiwan, Vietnam or Thailand due to a US-China trade dispute.
With the Chinese government continuing to suppress the domestic political and economic environment, coupled with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation has lost its appeal to Taiwanese businesses, Chiou said.
Even though the pandemic has abated, it is difficult to reverse such a trend, he said.
Hsin Ping-lung (辛炳隆), associate professor at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of National Development, said the sluggish post-pandemic economy in China has played a role in discouraging Taiwanese and other foreign companies from investing there.
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