China says Taiwan should be more open to its investment

[BEIJING] China's Industry Minister, Miao Wei, said on Saturday that self-ruled Taiwan should be more open to Chinese investment after two high-profile cross-Taiwan Strait deals fell through.

Taiwan's ChipMOS Technologies in November said it had scrapped a planned US$373 million stake sale to China's Tsinghua Unigroup due to uncertainty about Taiwanese regulatory clearance. It's the second deal in as many months between the mainland's Unigroup and a Taiwanese firm to fall through.

The share sale was spiked due to political considerations, industry analysts said, following intense scrutiny when the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power in Taiwan last year.

Speaking on the sidelines of the annual meeting of China's parliament, Mr Miao said economic cooperation between both sides of the Taiwan Strait have made huge progress in the last three decades since the two began a detente.

China welcomes Taiwan chip companies to invest in China, he added. "Of course, we hope that openness is two-sided, not one-sided," Mr Miao said. "We encourage and support Taiwanese companies to develop in the mainland, and at the same time Taiwan should have an even more open attitude towards mainland companies entering Taiwan." Mr Miao said such cooperation is good for both economies.

The DPP is traditionally less friendly toward China and espouses the island's formal independence, a red line for Beijing.

Shortly after Taiwan President and DPP leader Tsai Ing-wen took office last May, China cut off official communication with Taipei because she refused to accept China's view that the democratic island is a part of China.

China deems Taiwan a wayward province to be taken back by force if necessary. Taiwan has protected its prized chip industry from becoming too reliant and open to China.

Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists.

REUTERS