Chinese e-commerce platforms operating in Taiwan could strengthen Chinese control of Taiwanese goods, empower Chinese payment systems and record Taiwanese online consumer trends, Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said on Tuesday.
Lai made the comments after Taobao Taiwan announced that it was waiving all fees for transport, handling, advertisements, store launches and hosting products on its platform.
The policy indicated that Taobao and Shopee could bring more Chinese goods into Taiwan, Lai said, adding that if the platforms become prominent enough, they could exercise a monopoly over Taiwanese goods as merchants feel increasingly forced to sell through Taobao.
“Chinese companies having power over what products are sold in Taiwan — even just the idea of it — is dangerous,” Lai added.
Sufficient popularity of Chinese platforms would allow them to dictate which payment systems — such as the Chinese Alipay system — are accepted, giving the platform owners a certain amount of control over the flow of cash in the nation’s economy, Lai said.
It would also make it easier for such platforms to boycott certain systems and allow them to gather data on the habits of Taiwanese consumers, Lai said, adding that this presents a serious national security issue, as China would know who to target with what if they decided to launch an information war against Taiwan.
A review has not been conducted of regulations on Chinese investment that were passed during former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) two terms from 2008 to 2016 and President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) first term, he said.
For example, the Measures Governing Investment Permits to the People of the Mainland Area (大陸地區人民來台投資許可辦法) was promulgated in 2009, but last amended in March 2015, Lai added.
The government last discussed Chinese investments in March 2012, allowing Chinese to invest in about 95 percent of the manufacturing industry and 50 percent of the service industry, Lai said.
E-commerce, retail and wholesale, is a category that Chinese can invest in, Lai said, calling on new National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄), the former Financial Supervisory Commission chairman, to amend the measures and limit what Chinese can invest in.
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