Taiwan’s economy would again see unprecedented opportunities if it unites with China, Beijing said yesterday, stepping up a campaign to persuade Taipei to accept its rule.
China has since late last year attempted to convince Taiwan of the benefits of "peaceful reunification," though Beijing has also refused to renounce the use of force against the nation.
Taiwan's economy would be "reinvigorated with new vitality," drawing on the advantages of China's huge market and Taiwan's own strengths in science, technology and talent, China's Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) told a weekly news briefing in Beijing.
Photo: Reuters
"Peaceful reunification will inject greater certainty and growth potential into Taiwan's investment and business environment, representing an unprecedented opportunity and the greatest source of confidence for Taiwan's economic development," he added.
Taiwan is a major producer of the world's most advanced semiconductors, which are powering the global artificial intelligence megatrend. Its economy is booming, growing 8.68 percent last year, its fastest rate in 15 years, and is expected to expand 11.3 percent in the first quarter of this year.
"Rather than continuing to issue empty promises to Taiwan, the Chinese communists would be better served by first confronting the economic and social problems within mainland China itself," the Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement, pointing to issues such as high unemployment among young people.
Speaking to senior military officers in Taipei yesterday, President William Lai (賴清德) said that only by enhancing Taiwan's own defense capabilities can genuine peace be ensured.
"Unification packaged as peace will inevitably bring endless troubles to our nation," he said.
"At present, China is frequently conducting gray zone operations and military exercises in the waters surrounding the Taiwan Strait, while simultaneously employing a combination of military, legal, informational and psychological means, in an attempt to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and the broader region," Lai said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS