TAIPEI - Reports
citing mainland scholars reveal that the mainland authorities are
expected to impose a trade embargo on Taiwan within two
years.
It would be extremely ignorant for
mainland China to conduct a trade embargo on Taiwan, as
such a move would seriously hurt both sides, a
government official said on Thursday.
Yeh
Ming-feng, vice chairman of the cabinet-level Council
for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), said the
mainland proposal, reported by mainland-based media,
would be "totally ignorant".
The reports were
widely ascribed in Taiwan as the major factor leading to
a 204-point plummet - or a 3.5 percent fall - in the
Taiwan stock market.
The reports are the latest
development in a series of such
moves.
Beijing-based People's Daily on May 31
singled out Shu Wen-long, former Chi Mei Group chairman,
as the No 1 supporter of Taiwan independence among
Taiwan businessmen with investments in the mainland and
asserted that the mainland does not welcome such Taiwan
businessmen.
Pointing to the mainland as the
victim of an embargo against Taiwan due to the close
two-way exchanges, Yeh said Taiwan's capital and
technology have contributed a great deal to the
mainland's current economic prosperity.
If
mainland China resorted to an embargo, its economy would
slip back 10 years to the era before its market opening,
Yeh said, adding that such a unilateral move would also
hamper economic progress in the Asia-Pacific region and
the rest of the world.
"It would not be
welcomed by other developed countries," he predicted.
However,
he also said the mainland media reports might
be just a "psychological war" mounted by Beijing to
intimate Taiwan after President Chen Shui-bian was sworn
in for a second term on May 20.
The
possibility of war between Taiwan and the mainland is
slim, as is the prospect of a mainland embargo on
Taiwan, he added.
Echoing Yeh's comments,
scholars and economists said they do not believe that a
mainland embargo will be imposed, as the mainland would
pay an even greater price than Taiwan.
Chen
Po-chih, president of Taiwan Think Tank, lamented the
reports' impact on the domestic bourse and urged local
media, enterprises and the general public not to fall
for such mainland trickery.
Chen Miao, a
researcher at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research,
called the embargo a protectionist and repressive
measure that would severely taint the mainland's image
and provoke adverse effects in its trade and economic
activities in the international market.
(Asia
Pulse/CNA)
Jun 5, 2004
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