Secessionism hurts businesses in Taiwan
Xing YanChina Daily  Updated: 2006-01-16 05:32

Beijing demonstrated its commitment to closer cross-Straits economic relations on Saturday when President Hu Jintao said the mainland encourages more Taiwanese to do business and will offer better services to them.

During his trip to Xiamen in the eastern province of Fujian, Hu stressed business co-operation between the mainland and Taiwan benefits the common economic development of both sides and people across the Straits.

But in stark contrast to Beijing's sincerity to improve cross-Straits relations, Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian has taken a tougher line in order to poison bilateral ties.

In his New Year's Day speech, Chen used scathing political rhetoric to advocate what he called investment risks on the mainland and vowed to tighten control over cross-Straits economic exchanges through the "active management and effective opening" approach.

Intensifying his secessionist push for de jure independence, Chen also repeated a timetable to write a new "constitution" through referendum for the island before 2008.

This serves as a disturbing indication that the ideologically-minded leader will continue to put politics above the economy and local people's livelihoods during the rest of his second and final term, which ends in May 2008.

His remarks have defied wide expectations for a more conciliatory stance towards the mainland and gone against the wishes of people across the Straits for peaceful and stable bilateral ties.

No wonder the speech has not only drawn angry responses and mounting criticism from the opposition parties and the Taiwanese public, but also caused grave concern about Chen's policy in Washington.

After all, Taipei's hostile and provocative actions will endanger peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits as well as the Asia-Pacific region at large.

Although Chen has tried hard to portray himself as a man who loves Taiwan more than anyone else, he has actually damaged the island.

What his poor rule over the past five years has brought to Taiwan is political chaos, ethnic strife, a sagging economy, soaring unemployment, declining overseas investment as well as stagnant income growth among its 23 million people.

Between 2001 and 2005, Taiwan's annual average economic growth stood at just 3.3 per cent, much lower than that of the other three of Asia's "Four Little Dragons" Singapore (8.4 per cent), Hong Kong (8.2 per cent) and the Republic of Korea (5.4 per cent).

Due to Taiwan's worsening investment climate, foreign direct investment in the island has fallen by 60 per cent since 2000.

Meanwhile, the island's so-called "pain index" inflation plus unemployment was estimated to have reached 7 per cent in 2005, the highest in 24 years.

A major reason for Taiwan's lingering economic woes has been Chen's preoccupation with an anti-mainland mentality, which hinders closer cross-Straits co-operation to help the island speed up its economic transformation.

Given the highly complementary nature of the two economies across the Straits, there has been a broad consensus among Taiwan's business community that Taiwan should accelerate its economic integration with the mainland. By doing so, Taiwan can take advantage of the mainland's cheap labour, human resources and vast market.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei has long lobbied the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration to improve Taiwan's economic ties with the mainland so it can maintain its future competitiveness.

In its annual report issued in May 2005, the chamber bluntly warned that Taiwan must open up direct transport links with the mainland or risk losing its status as a key economic player.

Andrea Wu, president of the chamber, reportedly said Taiwan's proximity to the mainland "must be embraced as an economic strength and not just guarded against as a political risk."

But Chen has spared no effort to alienate Taiwan from the mainland to serve his secessionist push rather than strengthening cross-Straits co-operation.

Out of his fear that closer cross-Straits exchanges will impede his pro-independence attempt, Chen has only played word games on the critical matter of opening up the three direct links trade, transport and postal services.

Although Chen said on May 9, 2002 that the establishment of the links is "a road we must take," he has yet to take any concrete step to lift the island's decades-old ban on the three links.

That is despite the fact that the lack of direct links incurs economic losses amounting to millions of dollars annually for both sides of the Straits and has contributed a lot to Taiwan's economic woes.

In November 2001, the DPP administration introduced the policy of "active opening, effective management" as a sign of its willingness to ease control over cross-Straits trade.

But the new policy soon became an excuse for Taipei to impose more restrictions as Chen's administration overemphasized "the most basic and important aspect of effective management" on the pretext of safeguarding the island's security.

As a result of its closed-door policy towards the mainland's booming economy, Taipei has foolishly excluded itself from economic integration in East Asia and left Taiwan's economy further marginalized.

In fact, pan-politicization has prompted the pro-independence DPP administration to almost instinctively refuse any friendly moves from the mainland.

In May 2005, Beijing decided to allow tariff-free imports of 15 varieties of Taiwan-grown fruit and gave the go-ahead for mainland tourists to visit Taiwan. If implemented, these moves will bring substantial economic benefits to Taiwan's agricultural and tourism industries.

But the DPP administration has branded the goodwill gestures as Beijing's "united front" strategy against the island and tried every means possible to stop their implementation. That clearly demonstrates Chen and his administration are bent on political self-interest at the cost of public welfare.

As a desperate Chen has chosen to bet on a more dangerous path towards "Taiwan independence," he is taking the whole island and millions of Taiwanese as his hostages.

(China Daily 01/16/2006 page4)

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