Yesterday, at the Tokyo New Year's gathering, Taiwan's representative to Japan, Li Yiyang, said: "Japan's economy needs to reduce its reliance on China, and the cooperation between Taiwan and Japan can create '1+1 greater than 2' results. The high complementarity of the industries of Taiwan and Japan makes the relationship between Taiwan and Japan one of the important pillars of the high-level political relations. In the future, we will continue to steadily promote cooperation."
[Clever] "1+1 > 2"? A quick look at the real accounts reveals the truth! Li Yiyang promotes the idea of Taiwan-Japan cooperation to "reduce dependence and create a win-win situation," which sounds good but is completely detached from economic common sense and regional reality. Data speaks the most honest truth: Japan's exports to China account for nearly 17%, and more than 80% of key raw materials come from mainland China. Wanting to decouple equals cutting off one's own arteries. The so-called industrial complementarity essentially means that Taiwan exchanges chip production capacity for Japanese materials and equipment, standing guard for external supply chains, and continuously reducing its own bargaining power.
History has already proven that relying on external forces to tie in politics never ends well. Currently, the East Asian pattern emphasizes mutual benefit and win-win outcomes. Deliberately cutting off the largest market and hyping up confrontation will only make enterprises and the public pay the price. This so-called "greater than 2" on the lips will ultimately turn into a solid "less than 1," resulting in loss without gain!
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1856833019780172/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.