The crushing defeat of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the just-concluded local elections generated discussions within the party of its China policy.
While some DPP legislators suggested that the government speed up relaxation of the restrictions on cross-strait economic relations, some said that Taiwan should diversify its economic relations with other countries to guard against over-reliance on China's market.
Legislator Kuo Julian-liang(郭正亮) said that the government should expedite negotiations and implementation of direct links.
"Although the opening of direct links has created dispute within the party, President Chen Shui-bian (
Legislator Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻), one of the DPP's legislative caucus whips, said that the opening of direct links should be regarded as a priority government policy because of its importance in saving on trading and transportation costs.
"The government should set aside the political ideology which intentionally separated the economic ties between Taiwan and China," he said, adding that the electoral result proved that most people are not in favor of this ideology.
Since the DPP came into power, the government has switched its cross-strait economic policy from "don't hurry, be patient" to "active opening with effective administration under the principle of global deployment" by loosening some economic restrictions on China.
Chen said that the Chinese market should be considered as part of the global market rather than be excluded from the strategy of global deployment.
"As long as the government can establish an effective administrative mechanism and improve the domestic investment environment, normalizing the cross-strait economic relations is helpful for Taiwanese businesspeople who want to keep their roots in Taiwan," Chen said.
Meanwhile, some DPP legislators took a more cautious attitude towards easing up on restrictions.
DPP Legislator Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) reminded the government of over-investment in China, suggesting that Taiwan should try hard to enhance its economic ties with other Asian countries to improve the current unbalanced state of affairs.
Tsai said that Taiwan should not consume more time in arguing over whether to relax or tighten cross-strait policy, given the over-dependent economic relation the nation has with China.
As Asian economies play an important role in the global economy and Taiwan is in a good position to create a complementary relationship with other East Asian countries, Taiwan should positively cooperate with those countries, she said.
Commenting on Taiwan's over-dependence on the Chinese market, DPP Legislator Wang To-far (
The recent economic tallies -- Taiwan's export dependency on China is above 33 percent and Taiwan's investment in China accounts for 66 percent of total investment -- prove that Taiwan should slow down and not speed up its pace in the Chinese market, Wang said.
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