Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei (苗圩) yesterday said that investment across the Taiwan Strait could help achieve China’s aim of achieving unification with Taiwan, calling for Taipei to be more open to Chinese businesses.
Taiwanese businesses have been pouring money into China since a thaw in cross-strait relations began in the 1980s.
Chinese companies have also begun investing in Taiwan, but have run into problems since President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) electoral victory last year.
Speaking on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Miao said economic cooperation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait had made huge progress in the past three decades since the two began their detente.
China welcomes Taiwan chip companies to invest in China, he added.
“Of course, we hope that openness is two-sided, not one-sided,” Miao said. “We encourage and support Taiwanese companies to develop in the mainland and, at the same time, Taiwan should have an even more open attitude towards mainland companies entering Taiwan.”
“This way, industry on both sides of the Taiwan Strait can join hands to develop — which is good for both economies — and is also extremely helpful for promoting the unification of our two sides and achieving the aim of ‘one China,’” Miao said.
While his comments were broadcast live on state TV, the section about promoting unification was not included in the official online transcript of his news conference, an omission that was likely a sign of China’s sensitivity to a perception it is using its companies for political ends.
At least three major deals have fallen through since Tsai won last year’s election. All of them involved Chinese state-backed giant Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd (清華紫光), which planed to invest in three chip testing and packaging firms based in Taiwan: ChipMOS Technologies Inc (南茂), Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (矽品精密) and Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技).
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