Tuesday, October 16, 2012

DPP outlines plan to limit investment by China in Taiwan

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would establish a mechanism to screen incoming Chinese investment if it were in power, a DPP official said yesterday, as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) pledged to further relax inbound investment from across the Taiwan Strait.

“The DPP would establish an inter-agency committee to review Chinese investment in Taiwan and bar Chinese capital from certain sectors,” Policy Research Committee executive director Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said after the party’s weekly coordination meeting.

The meeting — which brings together party officials and legislators — discusses major policy issues every Monday.

The issue was raised at the meeting because increased Chinese investment is inevitable given Ma’s pledge to open the country up more to Chinese investment in his Double Ten National Day speech and the signing of a cross- strait investment protection agreement in August, Wu said.

The proposed committee would be shaped on the US’ Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, he said, and would include the finance minister as convener as well as deputy ministers, national security and local official, as well as academics and professionals.

Chinese investment projects worth more than NT$500 million (US$17 million) would have to be screened by the committee, Wu said.

Capital from the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese government or any of its affiliated organizations, would be prohibited from entering the Taiwanese market, Wu added.

Out of concern for national security and interests, the DPP would make five sectors and industries “off-limits” to Chinese investment, including sectors which would affect the development of politics, society, education, culture and media, Wu said.