China on Monday announced plans to extend a unilateral investigation into what it calls Taiwan’s trade barriers by three months to Jan. 12 next year, the eve of Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections, showing Beijing’s intention to interfere in the vote.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced on April 12, the day that the Democratic Progressive Party nominated Vice President William Lai (賴清德) as its presidential candidate, a probe into Taiwan’s import regulations on 2,455 types of products from China.
On Monday, China said that the probe, which was supposed to be completed this month, would be extended due to “complexities.” The announcement, as is typical for Beijing, was made in a brief statement with few details and no explanation for the decision.
Most of Taiwan’s regulations on imports from China have been in place since 1993 with the promulgation of the Regulations Governing Trade Between the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區貿易許可辦法), which provides access to Chinese goods if they are not deemed a danger to national security and have no major adverse effects on local industries. Since then, Taiwan has approved imports of at least 9,835 Chinese agricultural and industrial products.
The legislation was in place when Taiwan and China joined the WTO in 2002 and 2001 respectively. Taiwan’s ban on some Chinese imports on protectionist and national security grounds was not in breach of WTO rules. Taipei has shown goodwill, never listing China as ineligible for fair tariffs, and has repeatedly called on bilateral negotiations, including on trade issues.
However, China has never followed WTO rules regarding dialogue with Taiwanese officials. Data from the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations show that for the past two decades, China had never expressed concerns, let alone suggesting an investigation was warranted, over trade barriers, not even in its negotiations with Taiwan over the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement.
However, China launched its probe, ignoring the lack of mutual negotiations and notification procedures that go against the norms of WTO dispute settlement procedures.
Moreover, it has acted at a critical moment, right before crucial elections in Taiwan, and bolstered it with the deployment by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army of record numbers of warplanes and ships around Taiwan.
The probe is a political tool aimed at applying economic pressure to affect Taiwan’s elections, adding an entry to China’s ploy of combining military and economic coercion to influence Taiwanese voters and benefit pro-China candidates.
Beijing can be expected to ramp up the probe, implementing more sanctions on Taiwanese products or even ending some of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement’s preferential tariffs.
The government and industries should prepare countermeasures for such action.
However, Beijing should have learned that its coercive tactics would prompt Taiwanese to vote contrary to its political aspirations, while its unilateral economic manipulations, which contravene international rules, run the risk of losing Taiwanese and foreign investment, which would do even more damage to its turbulent economy.
As WTO members, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should hold bilateral consultations or initiate multilateral dispute settlement mechanisms to address trade issues in accordance with the world body’s regulations.
With each passing day, the threat of a People’s Republic of China (PRC) assault on Taiwan grows. Whatever one’s view about the history, there is essentially no question that a PRC conquest of Taiwan would mark the end of the autonomy and freedom enjoyed by the island’s 23 million people. Simply put, the PRC threat to Taiwan is genuinely existential for a free, democratic and autonomous Taiwan. Yet one might not know it from looking at Taiwan. For an island facing a threat so acute, lethal and imminent, Taiwan is showing an alarming lack of urgency in dramatically strengthening its defenses.
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US
I still remember the first time I heard about the possibility of an invasion by China. I was six years old. I thought war was coming and hid in my bed, scared. After 18 years, the invasion news tastes like a sandwich I eat every morning. As a Gen Z Taiwanese student who has witnessed China’s harassment for more than 20 years, I want to share my opinion on China. Every generation goes through different events. I have seen not only the norms of China’s constant presence, but also the Sunflower movement, wars and people fighting over peace or equality,