Don’t make us suffer even more, Taiwanese businessmen on Chinese mainland tell president-elect Tsai Ing-wen
Mainland-based Taiwanese businessmen have expressed fears cross-strait economic relations could be harmed by the incoming pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party government
Taiwanese businesspeople based on the mainland fear cross-strait economic relations could be harmed by the incoming pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party government.
Struggling to survive amid the mainland’s slowing economic growth and increasingly stiff competition, they are concerned by president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s pledge to cut the island’s economic reliance on the mainland after she assumes office on May 20.
“As businesspeople based on the mainland, we cannot help but worry about the prospect of cross-strait relations, given the DPP’s pro-independence platform and Tsai’s refusal to recognise the 1992 consensus,” said Yeh Chun-jung, vice-chairman of the Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises on the Mainland.
The consensus was an oral agreement between semi-official representatives from the mainland and Taiwan that both sides belong to “one China”, but it leaves open to interpretation what one China is.
Tsai swept to a landslide victory in the January 16 presidential election, ending eight years of Kuomintang rule in Taiwan under Ma Ying-jeou.
Ma had adopted a policy of engagement with Beijing, which led to warming cross-strait relations and the expansion of economic exchanges. Beijing insists that peaceful development of relations can continue only if the 1992 consensus is recognised.
