China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed.
The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024.
That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas.
Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from 7.9 percent in 2016, to 8.3 percent in 2017, and to 7.7 percent in 2018, ultimately dropping to just 1.6 percent last year, the lowest in the survey’s history.
DGBAS data also showed that the number of Taiwanese working in China peaked at 430,000 in 2012 and had accounted for more than 60 percent of the total number of Taiwanese workers abroad.
However, that number sharply declined due to the COVID-19 pandemic, falling to just 163,000 in 2021, or 51.1 percent of the overseas workforce, the data showed.
Although the figures began to recover as COVID-19 restrictions eased, only 231,000 Taiwanese workers were in China in 2024, accounting for 34.7 percent of those working abroad — also a new low.
As for China’s latest 10 “incentive measures” for Taiwan — announced on April 12, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) China visit — the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said it had received numerous complaints from industry groups and people expressing concerns about China pressuring them to support the policy.
The pressure has been disruptive and burdensome, the council said, urging associations to reject being used as tools to coerce the government.
It also called on China to immediately cease such political maneuvers.
The 10 “incentives” include facilitating the sales of Taiwanese agricultural and fishery products, and investments in China, and the full resumption of direct flights across the Taiwan Strait.
China’s Cross-Strait Air Transport Exchange Commission has sent a letter to the Taipei City Air Transport Commercial Association regarding the flights, but the Executive Yuan said that “actual demand for direct cross-strait flights is not as high as previously imagined.”
The MAC said that current flight routes and capacity are sufficient to meet demand, adding that there is “no urgent need to immediately open up additional services.”
Meanwhile, sources said General Chamber of Commerce Chairman Paul Hsu (許舒博) is to hold a news conference tomorrow titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” where he would invite representatives from industry associations — those for travel, hotels, food, baked goods, fruits and bus tours — to express their views and pressure the government.
The “incentives” include initiatives that have fluctuated over the past two decades, “sometimes opening, sometimes suspended for unfounded reasons,” the MAC said.
“This has created significant uncertainty for Taiwanese industries, as well as farmers and fishers, resulting in considerable losses,” it said, adding that the government has a responsibility to shield the economy and industries from such arbitrary risks and prevent political interference in elections.
“If China genuinely intends to move forward with such measures, they should be negotiated through the existing mechanisms between the two governments, without political preconditions,” it added.
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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