As a fighter jet screamed over the lush green fields of Hualien County last week, pomelo farmer Ou Mu-lin sat in his orchard counting the cost of China’s latest push to squeeze the nation.
Cross-strait tensions have risen to their highest level in decades as China rages over a Taiwan visit by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this month.
Beijing launched drills shortly after Pelosi departed from Taipei, sending missiles into waters around Taiwan, and it torpedoed exports of certain fruit and fish products to China with fresh import bans.
Photo: Asnaya Chou, AFP
The overall impact of China’s latest economic sanctions is limited, but producers such as Ou are paying a painful price.
“Our mainland [China] orders have all been canceled. Our pomeloes have no way of getting there,” he said.
His farm in Hualien’s Ruisui Township (瑞穗) has dispatched about 180,000kg of the citrus fruit to China every year for several decades.
Photo: Asnaya Chou, AFP
“The clients are waiting for the pomeloes, but there’s nothing we can do, it’s a political problem,” he shrugged.
Taiwanese farmers and producers have increasingly had to get used to import bans imposed by Beijing — with Chinese authorities typically citing sudden regulatory discrepancies rather than a direct link to politics.
After Pelosi’s visit, China announced bans on Taiwanese citrus fruit and some mackerel, while halting its own exports to Taiwan of natural sand used in construction.
The month before her visit, it targeted grouper fish, the vast majority of which had previously gone to Chinese consumers.
Taipei said the move was politically motivated, while China claimed it found some fish to be contaminated by banned chemicals.
A year earlier, pineapple imports were halted after Chinese authorities claimed to have discovered pests in shipments, just as the annual harvest was under way.
At a grouper facility in Pingtung County, third-generation farmer Hans Chen of Lijia Green Energy and Biotechnology Co said he would be “severely impacted” if the sanctions were not lifted by the end of the year.
Chen, 35, manages a farm of about 500,000 groupers, and 90 percent of its exports go to China.
He said the ban was imposed without any warning and came at the worst time for producers already bruised by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fish farmer said his business and others are relying too much on the lucrative Chinese market and need to diversify away from Taiwan’s aggressive neighbor after the surprise ban.
“Everyone felt the COVID-19 situation was slowly improving and the China market is slowly stabilizing and prices will rise again, so there will be ... some profit to make up for the previous losses,” he said. “That’s why everyone’s anxious, and [the sanctions’] effects are very big.”
China remains Taiwan’s largest trading partner, accounting for 28 percent of total exports.
However, the government and businesses have also pushed economic diversification in response to Beijing’s increased aggression under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the country’s most authoritarian leader in a generation.
Since 2016, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has pursued the New Southbound Policy to grow trade with Southeast and other countries in East Asia.
Taiwan is also seeing a surge of sympathy from like-minded democracies in the Asia-Pacific region.
Much of last year’s pineapple harvest was saved when Japanese consumers rushed to purchase “freedom pineapples” in an act of solidarity.
Moreover, China has so far been careful with what it targets.
Taiwan is one of the world’s largest producers of semiconductors, and Beijing has steered clear of hitting a market it leans on to satisfy demand at home.
“China is highly selective in choosing the instruments of economic sanctions against Taiwan,” said Christina Lai (賴潤瑤), a research fellow at Academia Sinica. “It has always refrained from damaging its domestic economy and technology industries. Beijing cannot afford to ban the most crucial imports from Taiwan — semiconductors, high-end instruments or machinery.”
The overall impact on Taiwan’s economy is therefore “very limited,” said Fan Shih-ping (范世平), a professor at National Taiwan Normal University. “It is a political manipulation, as China wants to show it is calling the shots and has control over Taiwan.”
However, for farmers who have become the victims of the latest uptick in tensions, the scale of the sanctions feels seismic.
“We are looking for help from the government, if there’s any way they can help us,” Ou said. “We have to start to find some sales within the country. This is a big headache.”
The Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association has cautioned Japanese travelers to be vigilant against pickpockets at several popular tourist spots in Taiwan, including Taipei’s night markets, the Yongkang Street area, Zhongshan MRT Station, and Jiufen (九份) in New Taipei City. The advisory, titled “Recent Development of Concerns,” was posted on the association’s Web site under its safety and emergency report section. It urges travelers to keep backpacks fully zipped and carried in front, with valuables placed at the bottom of the bag. Visitors are advised to be especially mindful of their belongings when taking photos or speaking on the phone, avoid storing wallets and
ENDORSING TAIWAN: Honduran presidential candidate Nasry Afura said that Honduras was ‘100 times better off’ when it was allied with Taipei The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it would explore the possibility of restoring diplomatic relations with Honduras based on the principle of maintaining national interests and dignity. The ministry made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions regarding an article titled: “Will Taiwan Regain a Diplomatic Ally?” published in The Diplomat on Saturday. The article said Honduras’ presidential election in November could offer Taiwan the chance to regain an ally, as multiple candidates have promoted re-establishing diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Honduras severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in March 2023 in favor of Beijing, but since switching its diplomatic recognition,
Scoot announced yesterday that starting in October, it would increase flights between Taipei and Japan’s Narita airport and Hokkaido, and between Singapore and Taipei. The low-cost airline, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, also said it would launch flights to Chiang Rai in Thailand, Okinawa and Tokyo’s Haneda airport between December and March next year. Flights between Singapore and Chiang Rai would begin on Jan. 1, with five flights per week operated by an Embraer E190-E2 aircraft, Scoot said. Flights between Singapore and Okinawa would begin on Dec. 15, with three flights per week operated by Airbus A320 aircraft, the airline said. Services between Singapore
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday announced a ban on all current and former government officials from traveling to China to attend a military parade on Sept. 3, which Beijing is to hold to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. "This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Republic of China’s victory in the War of Resistance [Against Japan]," MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a regular news briefing in Taipei. To prevent Beijing from using the Sept. 3 military parade and related events for "united
RSS