Mainland stops importing two Taiwan fruits, and DPP authority is howling
Hu Xijin
The Chinese mainland announced on Sunday suspension of imports of cherimoya and wax apples from the island of Taiwan due to the discovery of a known pest in recent shipments. This has led to bitter complaints from some politicians on the island.
The leader of the Taiwan region Tsai Ing-wen pecked at the mainland, accusing the mainland of “unilaterally violating international trade norms” on social media, while the leader of the agriculture authority of the island Chen Chi-Chung threatened to sue the mainland through the WTO.
The mainland’s decision is based on a simple fact, that the two kinds of subtropical fruit produced on the island are repeatedly found to contain dangerous pests, and that’s it.
But Taiwan authorities wanted to play up the issue and interpret it as the mainland imposing economic and political pressure on the island. Perhaps some of the secessionist politicians in Taiwan fear that they will be punished by the mainland, so they are convinced that the mainland is using cherimoya and wax apples to teach them a lesson.
Displaying such low resilience, Tsai Ing-wen and her followers on the island are in no position to confront the mainland. Taiwan has a trade surplus of more than $100 billion a year with the Chinese mainland, so what advantage does the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority will obtain, being at odds with the mainland and using the island to act as a tool of the US’ anti-China Indo-Pacific strategy?
If the mainland’s ties with Taiwan are good enough, many mainlanders would not think it a big deal if the mainland buys some of Taiwan’s fruits that may contain pests. But now since the secessionist DPP authority wants to act as Washington’s lapdog, there is no reason for the mainland to buy the island’s contaminated fruit.
Taiwan-produced goods used to sell well on mainland markets. However, their competitiveness has suffered over time. So now if the island authority wants to maintain the share of these products in the huge mainland market, trying to shore up good cross-Straits relations will undoubtedly help.
Unfortunately, the current secessionist policies of the DPP authority will certainly continue to make Taiwan products less appealing to the mainlanders. As a Chinese saying goes, peace breeds wealth. And if the DPP authority cannot understand this idiom, then it’d better if they just stopped doing business.
The decision to ban some Taiwan-produced fruits is based on the mainland’s quarantine laws. Such a technical reason is righteous. The mainland should just let the DPP authority howl, and nobody in the mainland will be listening.
The writer is editor-in-chief of the Global Times.
