Taiwan’s main agricultural exports to China over the past three years — those for which China takes more than 90 percent of Taiwan’s exports — include areca nuts (commonly known as betel nuts), wax apples, atemoyas, pineapples, grapefruit and oranges, figures published by the Council of Agriculture showed.
Among these, more than 95 percent of Taiwan’s pineapple exports go to China, putting pineapples in the top spot among these “big six” China-bound agricultural exports in terms of quantity and value.
Evidently, China’s decision to target Taiwanese pineapples was a calculated one.
This is not the first time that China has employed such tactics. In 2012, when China and the Philippines were engaged in a sovereignty dispute over the Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in the South China Sea, China announced a temporary halt to imports of pineapples and bananas from the Philippines.
As has happened now, China’s rationale was that harmful organisms had been found in fruit shipments. Taiwanese pineapples subsequently became the main alternative source of the fruit for China.
Since then, Taiwan has become highly dependent on China for its pineapple exports, and China is now treating Taiwan in its usual fashion. Seen alongside China’s ban on imports of Australian wine and coal in an attempt to sanction Australia for disagreeing with Beijing over international affairs, it becomes still more obvious that this is part of China’s consistent strategy of using commerce to apply political pressure.
As revealed in the 2015 book The Political Science of Fruit: A Retrospective of 10 Years of Cross-Strait Agricultural Exchanges and Future Prospects (水果政治學:兩岸農業交流十年回顧與展望), the sale of Taiwanese agricultural products to China was first proposed at the 2005 meeting between then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and then-Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in the latter’s capacity as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The CCP Central Committee, focusing on its “united front” strategy, set out a series of policies on purchasing Taiwanese fruit. It also cooperated with high-ranking figures in the KMT to connect with Taiwanese farmers.
As well as arranging for the farmers to sell fruit to China, it also persuaded them to transfer new farming technologies.
This turned out to be a “lure, trap, kill” strategy, as a result of which Taiwanese golden diamond pineapples, which are the most widely grown variety in Taiwan, are now also grown in China’s Guangdong and Hainan provinces.
On the same day that China announced its ban on pineapple imports from Taiwan, it used the occasion to strongly promote Guangdong-grown pineapples.
To sum up, there is no clear division between politics and economics. Taiwan must figure out how to reduce its dependence on a single market and how to process its agricultural products into high-added-value products that can be stored for a long time, so that they can be sold to more distant countries.
This change would involve some short-term pain, but in the long term it is the only way to free Taiwan’s farming sector from being blackmailed by other countries.
Liou Je-wei is a graduate student of political science at National Taiwan University.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
The past few months have seen tremendous strides in India’s journey to develop a vibrant semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. The nation’s established prowess in information technology (IT) has earned it much-needed revenue and prestige across the globe. Now, through the convergence of engineering talent, supportive government policies, an expanding market and technologically adaptive entrepreneurship, India is striving to become part of global electronics and semiconductor supply chains. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision of “Make in India” and “Design in India” has been the guiding force behind the government’s incentive schemes that span skilling, design, fabrication, assembly, testing and packaging, and
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s (李顯龍) decision to step down after 19 years and hand power to his deputy, Lawrence Wong (黃循財), on May 15 was expected — though, perhaps, not so soon. Most political analysts had been eyeing an end-of-year handover, to ensure more time for Wong to study and shadow the role, ahead of general elections that must be called by November next year. Wong — who is currently both deputy prime minister and minister of finance — would need a combination of fresh ideas, wisdom and experience as he writes the nation’s next chapter. The world that
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry