Taiwanese in the streets force Taiwan president to back down

TAIPEI - 116,000; 350,000; 700,000: these were numbers given respectively by Taiwan police force, protest organizers and some local TV Stations. Whatever the real number, it shows that the relation between Taiwan and China is far of being easy and well accepted by Taiwan population. It also shows that if China wants one day to take back what it considers as a “renegade province of China” it is likely to face heavy resilience. In contrary to the smooth revert of Hong Kong and Macau to the Mainland some 15 years ago.

All came from a trade pact agreement opening both Taiwan and China to respective investors in some 80 sectors of the economy. However, Taiwanese have been anything but convinced about the benefits of such a deal. Above all they fear a growing influence of Beijing over their destiny through economic control. Most of the protesters, initially students but then joined by a larger share of the population, mostly complaint about the lack of transparency in the deal. According to local newspapers, a poll before the occupation by students of the legislature building –the seat of Taiwan parliament- indicated that more than 70 percent of respondents supported a line-by-line review of the pact.

A day before the massive protest in the streets of Taipei, Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou back-pedaled to concede an review of some elements of the trade pact while a law would be promulgated to allow Taiwan parliament he would back an itemized review of the trade pact and a law that would allow the legislature to more closely monitor agreements with Beijing.

The movement could be a cold shower in the relations between China and Taiwan, which are booming since the return o the Kuomintang Party in power in Taiwan in 2008. According to Hong Kong South China Morning Post – which is very close to pro-Beijing government circles in the former British colony- reported a few days ago about the impatience of Chinese authorities. Ma Xiaoguang, the spokesman for the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office in Beiing, declared in a news briefing in the Chinese capital that the pact was the result of globalisation.“People on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are reluctant to see the progress of cross-strait economic co-operation disturbed,” he said. “No one would like to see cross-strait relations return to tension and confrontation” as before in 2008," he said. “From the mainland’s perspective, the trade service pact is well-drafted and mutually beneficial.”

Hostility of Taiwanese could be insidiously punished by Chinese authorities. One of the first levers that China can immediately play over is to dissuade Chinese travellers to visit Taiwan by imposing special visit conditions. Such measures have already been taken in the past for Macau or the Philippines.

Mainland China tourism is turning increasingly important for the island. In 2013, Mainland Chinese travellers reached 2.8 million, representing close to 35% of all foreign arrivals into Taiwan. In 2010, they were only 1.53 million of Mainland Chinese to Taiwan or 27% of all foreign arrivals. Prior to an agreement on travel liberalization, they were only 329,000 Mainland Chinese in 2008 to Taiwan, just 8% of all arrivals. An eventual boycott of Mainlanders would then have catastrophic economic consequences and request extreme skills of the Kuomintang party to avoid such a situation…

Sourced: TravelDailyNews