On August 24, the DPP authorities announced that "Taobao Taiwan", which obtained the Taobao brand authorization of Alibaba Group, was a mainland capital, and imposed a fine of NT$410,000 on its , withdrew its investment or "corrected" within a period of 6 months.
just banned iQiyi and Tencent Audio and Video platforms, and in a blink of an eye, he hit Taobao again. In order to cooperate with Western anti-China forces, the DPP authorities have provoked the mainland and hurt the economy themselves. They have been working hard recently.
"Taobao Taiwan" website screenshot (Photo source: Taiwan media)
makes things difficult
Taobao, like iQiyi, has many fans in Taiwan.
Alibaba entered the Taiwan market as early as 2008. In 2013, Taobao's transaction volume in Taiwan was nearly NT$50 billion. It is estimated that at that time, more than 10,000 Taobao packages were shipped from mainland China to Taiwan every day, and 1/4 of Taiwanese online sellers purchased goods directly from Taobao. For a while, the buzzword "Taobao Unifies China" was spread on the cross-strait Internet.
In 2014, the "Sunflower Movement" secretly promoted by the Democratic Progressive Party appeared on the island. The cross-strait service trade agreement was forced to be stranded, and the general environment for mainland capital to go to Taiwan has deteriorated since then. Under the pressure from the DPP, Taobao has been repeatedly harassed, and Alibaba has had to re-apply for Taiwan in 2015.
At the end of October 2019, "Taobao Taiwan" was launched. The day after the launch, Yu Wanru, a "legislator" of the DPP, deducted a lot of charges to "Taobao Taiwan" at a press conference, saying that a series of actions such as Taobao helped to select goods, collect goods, free shipping and delivery, and reduce card swiping fees, would "destroy Taiwan's e-commerce" .
Now, the United States is taking a thug against Chinese-funded enterprises, and the DPP authorities are following suit. The Taiwan Economic Department Investment Review Conference stated on August 24 that although "Taobao Taiwan" is operated by British Crada, and the proportion of mainland capital in Crada's equity does not exceed 30%, it was determined after investigation that Alibaba Group has "substantive control" over Crada, and "Taobao Taiwan" belongs to the mainland capital .
According to the original regulations on the island, the proportion of mainland capital does not exceed 30% is not considered a mainland capital enterprise. However, the DPP authorities recently specifically revised the regulations for this purpose. Even if the mainland capital is less than 30%, as long as the investment review committee determines that the mainland capital in the relevant enterprises has "substantive control", it will not escape the name of "land capital".
"Taobao Taiwan" was forced to be put on the "violation" blacklist.
"Taobao Taiwan" is recognized as a mainland capital. Source: Taiwanese media
Crazy
. Regardless of the judgment of the Commission on the "local capital has substantial control", the logic of the DPP authorities alone "You are a mainland capital, you are guilty" is already like crazy.
htmlFor more than 0 years, Taiwan has been in need of foreign capital. The island has been deeply trapped in the "five shortages" dilemma such as shortages in labor and electricity shortages, attracting foreign capital to be weak. Occasionally, foreign capital expressed its intention to invest in Taiwan, and the DPP authorities can't wait to make a big splash, which leads to political achievements, but often fails.
Tsai Ing-wen’s boastful “Taiwanese business return” is also the meaning of attracting capital to regain the economy and employment growth, but the statistics of the Taiwan economic sector exposed the truth - the so-called “return” is actually the vast majority of enterprises invest directly in Taiwan.
In this case, mainland capital, which is strong and willing to invest, should have become the most suitable source of Taiwan's economy. The DPP actually knows this well. When Chen Shui-bian was in power in 2001, he decided to "open up mainland enterprises to invest in Taiwan", and made plans the following year, intending to open up to mainland capital in two stages. However, due to cross-strait relations and other reasons, mainland investors will have to wait until 8 years later to actually go to Taiwan.
In 2009, the Kuomintang authorities' Ministry of Economic Affairs officially issued the "Regulations on the Investment License of People in Mainland China to Taiwan" and other regulations, opening up the first phase of domestic investment projects (including 192 projects in the fields of manufacturing, service, and public construction). The "first year of mainland investment in Taiwan" kicked off.
However, since mainland tourists going to Taiwan and cross-strait charter flights can be called "Trojans massacres", the signing of the ECFA (Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement) between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait was slandered as "Three million men in Taiwan are unemployed and women marrying in Heilongjiang" is not bizarre - Mainland capital going to Taiwan, of course, can't escape the ruthless demonization of the DPP and the green camp.
After the "Sunflower Movement" in 2014, there were voices on the island saying that if mainland investors came here, they would "hold the Taiwan printing industry" and "no one would print democratic magazines"; after mainland investors participated in the construction of Taiwan's water conservancy projects, they would "get a clear understanding of the laying of various pipelines in Taiwan to facilitate the army to get ashore"; mainland investors entered the semiconductor industry, "will capture all Taiwan semiconductors in one place"... This kind of panic spreading rumors is easy to create by some people on the island. In an environment like
, mainland investors have been subject to very strict restrictions on going to Taiwan, so that in the past 10 years, mainland investors have only been about US$2.2 billion. In contrast, in the past 30 years since the mainland opened up Taiwanese investment, Taiwanese investment has invested more than US$300 billion in .
In 2019, Yu Wanru, a "legislator" of the DPP, clamored at a press conference, "Taobao Taiwan, hollow out Taiwan." Source: Taiwan media
self-harm
Since this year, the DPP authorities have followed the United States and ordered to restrict the import of raw materials from the mainland by enterprises on the island, ban the sales of mainland mobile phones that show "Taiwan, China", and ban iQiyi , which has 2 million active users in Taiwan... Small actions have been continuously.
Tsai Ing-wen openly stated that the Sino-US trade war proves that the DPP authorities' "new southward policy" is correct, and the green camp shouted the slogans of "economy to de-China" and "taking advantage of the epidemic to get rid of China."
However, "economic de-centralization" can only exist in the dreams of some people on the island . Data shows that since the outbreak of the epidemic, it is the mainland that was the first to resume work and production to drive cross-strait economic and trade exchanges, which has become a key factor in Taiwan's economic development. From January to July, cross-strait trade volume reached US$134.94 billion, an increase of 8.7% year-on-year, and Taiwan's surplus exceeded US$70 billion. Currently, mainland enterprises employ nearly 25,000 employees in Taiwan and pay more than NT$1.2 billion in taxes each year.
From an economic perspective, mainland capital is crucial to Taiwan's outward-oriented economy, and mainland capital's trip to Taiwan is a great benefit. However, the DPP authorities only consider it from a political perspective, so mainland capital has been repeatedly charged with all kinds of alarmist crimes such as "brainwashing people" and "annexation of Taiwan". "from the mainland" has become an original sin without explanation.
Taobao’s business in Taiwan not only facilitates tens of millions of Taiwanese people, but also provides Taiwan’s small and medium-sized e-commerce with purchasing channels and healthy competition opportunities, prospers Taiwan’s e-commerce and improves the level of service industry on the island.
Taiwan media once pointed out that if Alibaba set up a company in Taiwan, use Taiwanese employees to purchase Taiwanese goods, or provide a platform to sell goods to Taiwanese manufacturers to the mainland, it will help boost Taiwan's economy. Being blindly afraid of mainland capital and losing Taiwan's opportunity will eventually harm Taiwan.
Cross-strait economic exchanges and cooperation are beneficial to Taiwan. Of course, the DPP understands such a simple truth, but their fundamental starting point is not whether it is beneficial to Taiwan, but whether it is beneficial to the votes. The DPP must rely on "anti-China" to incite fear and hatred in order to keep votes flowing.
The more beneficial the mainland capital is to Taiwan, the more unfavorable it is to the DPP. This is also the reason why the DPP is wholeheartedly trying to cut off roads, dig pits, and build walls on the cross-strait, so as not to allow the Taiwanese people to benefit from cross-strait exchanges.
But no matter how the DPP authorities make a fuss, the general trend of economic and social integration and development between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait cannot be changed. What they do will only compress Taiwan’s development space, ruin Taiwan’s development opportunities, and make the island’s businesses shout “the tide of shops is coming”, and the people on the island regret that there is nowhere to “shop”.
follows the routines of some Western politicians, and in the end they are the only ones who fall into the pit.
text/Black and white free
edit/Diancang Jushi
