The main reason China is willing to concede so much to Taiwan in the “early harvest” tariff waiver program under the soon to be signed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) is because it does not consider Taiwan “an outsider,” Liu Guoshen (劉國深), president of Xiamen University’s Center for Taiwan Studies, said in an interview with the Central News Agency on Thursday.
Under the final “early harvest” list agreed to on Thursday, China would lower or waive tariffs for 539 items from Taiwan, with an estimated value of US$13.8 billion, while Taiwan will lower or waive tariffs for 267 items from China, with an estimated value of US$2.8 billion.
Liu said China has never before made such concession when negotiating economic agreements with other countries.
Despite some opposition, however, Beijing’s leaders want Taiwan to enjoy economic prosperity because they believe such an outcome will have a knock-on effect on China, he said.
“We do not consider Taiwan to be an outsider, we are both parts of China. It doesn’t matter if we take [money] out of one pocket and put it into another pocket [of our own],” Liu said.
Although some businesses in China are still not convinced, what is more important for the Chinese government is the interests of both sides of the Taiwan Strait, he said.
Citing bananas from Zhangzhou as an example, he said the bananas taste more or less the same as those produced in Taiwan, but Taiwanese bananas are more expensive, because this helps to promote economic prosperity.
When Taiwan enjoys economic prosperity, China also enjoys economic prosperity, Liu said.
Taiwan being competitive in the global market is the same thing as China being competitive in the global market, he said.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents
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