A Chinese ban on grouper imports from Taiwan is both retaliation for a closer Taiwan-US relationship and an attempt to sway the elections at the end of the year, a government official familiar with cross-strait affairs said on Monday.
China on Monday banned Taiwanese grouper fish for allegedly containing banned chemicals and excessive levels of oxytetracycline.
Chinese authorities in January announced that they had found residues of illegal veterinary drugs in two batches of grouper imported from Taiwan.
Photo courtesy of the Pingtung County
The two batches were from three fish farms and were shipped to China on two vessels, Fisheries Agency Deputy Director-General Lin Kuo-ping (林國平) said yesterday, adding that the agency has launched an investigation into the farms and would soon publish the results.
Taiwan exported about 6,681 tonnes of grouper last year, generating a production value of NT$1.68 billion (US$56.6 million), Council of Agriculture data show.
Grouper exports are highly reliant on China, where 91 percent of Taiwan’s exported grouper was sold last year, accounting for 36 percent of the total yield of the year, the statistics show.
From January to last month, Taiwan exported 3,059 tonnes of the fish to China and Hong Kong.
As grouper is on the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement’s (ECFA) “early harvest” list, Beijing’s intent is for the “economic sanction” to serve as a threat to other products on the list, the government official said.
“This is just the beginning,” the source said, adding that China is conspiring to make the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) suffer a bruising defeat like it did in the 2018 local elections, as Taiwanese grouper is produced mainly in Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, which have long been strongholds of the DPP.
The official said China was likely to ban other agricultural and fishery products imports from Taiwan and “resort to every means to cause chaos in Taiwanese society.”
Beijing’s intimidation is intended to warn farmers and fishers that their profits might be taken away if they continue to support the DPP, the person said, denouncing the measure as “mean” and calling it a form of political manipulation.
The ban is another example of Chinese cognitive warfare against Taiwan, as it not only targets local fishers, but also promotes the spread of pro-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) propaganda online, as well as rumors about problematic products from Taiwan, the person said.
As the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th National Congress is to be held later this year, the DPP winning local elections in November would be a cause of shame for Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), so Beijing’s “united front” efforts this year will be “fierce and ruthless,” which the government should be prepared for, the person added.
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
WASHED ASHORE: Of the 16 bodies discovered along Taiwan’s west coast this month, two were Vietnamese and five were Taiwanese, coast guard officials said Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) said that he has instructed prosecutors and maritime authorities to launch investigations after 16 bodies were found along Taiwan’s west coast this month, amid speculation that they were victims of smuggling or human trafficking rings. Coast Guard Administration (CGA) officials said the bodies, most of which had washed ashore, were found by coast guard personnel and local residents along the coastline from Keelung to Kaohsiung. Thirteen of the bodies are male and three are female, the CGA said, adding that items found on the bodies indicate that two of the men were Vietnamese, while three men
TASK FORCE DISPATCHED: MOFA said it would assist state employees with repatriation or relocation to other ally nations in the region after Tegucigalpa severed ties The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Monday ordered Honduras to vacate its embassy in Taiwan within 30 days of Sunday after Tegucigalpa made a similar demand of Taiwan. Taipei on Monday announced that it had cut ties with Honduras after the Central American nation earlier said in a statement that it had established ties with Beijing and ended its diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. Following the announcements, Honduran Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Garcia spoke on Honduran television saying that Taiwan would be required to vacate its embassy in the Honduran capital. In Taipei, MOFA later told a news conference that “according
CHINA TRIP: The former president said he hoped the two sides of the Taiwan Strait would work together to pursue peace, avoid war and strive to ‘revitalize China’ Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday began a 12-day tour of China with a visit to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing. He paid tribute to Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), a founder of the Republic of China, giving a short speech and then bowing in front of the memorial. “The people of both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the Chinese nation, are children of Yandi (炎帝) and Huangdi (黃帝),” he told reporters who had been allowed to follow him on the trip, referring to figures said to have founded of the Han ethnicity in ancient China. Ma has framed the trip as