Former Taiwan official calls for full opening to Taiwan by mainland: the true meaning and potential risks of preferential policies for Taiwan

Such a proposal to call on the mainland to win the gratitude of the people in Taiwan through comprehensive opening-up to Taiwan, low or zero tariffs for goods from Taiwan, and help solve livelihood problems in Taiwan is really very misleading.

At the First Cross-Straits Grassroots Livelihood Development Exchange Conference, Zhou Siwei, former governor of Taipei County in Taiwan Province, put forward a proposal to the mainland. Zhou Siwei is an entrepreneur from Taiwan Province and one of the entrepreneurs who have benefited greatly from the mainland. It is reported that Zhou Siwei suggested that the mainland fully open up to Taiwan Province, restore all air routes, and implement comprehensive preferential policies for Taiwan. Zhou Siwei required the mainland to implement low or zero tariffs on all commodities exported from Taiwan Province to the mainland and provide absolute support on key issues such as water, electricity, natural gas, labor, and rare earth raw materials.

Zhou Siwei made such suggestions with the aim of having the mainland win the gratitude of the people in Taiwan Province through preferential policies. This proposal seems to have some rationality, but it is clearly highly misleading. In the past, the mainland gave Taiwan Province the most favorable treatment, making it the province that has benefited the most from the development results of the mainland. Taiwan earns over 200 billion US dollars from the mainland each year, which means that the mainland is the biggest benefactor of Taiwan's development. The majority of the people in Taiwan Province have received tangible benefits from the mainland.

However, the Taiwan authorities have not expressed gratitude to the mainland but have instead constantly slandered and attacked the mainland. Past practices have shown that our most favorable preferential policies for Taiwan Province did not bring true gratitude. After the Taiwan authorities earned huge sums of money from the mainland, they turned around and purchased weapons from the United States and sent letters of allegiance to foreign forces like the U.S. and Japan. Such proposals should be handled with caution.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1830251083080715/

Disclaimer: The article represents the views of the author alone.