As Taiwan’s Workers Flock to China, Concerns About Economy Grow
- 8 years ago
Jason Lee spent most of the last decade building a business in a field for which Taiwan is famous.
People here are increasingly worried that growing cross-strait trade and investment and the large number of people from Taiwan working on the mainland are making Taiwan dangerously dependent on China, which claims the island as part of its territory and has tried to use its economic clout to buy influence.
Such concerns helped set off large protests in 2014 against the ruling party , the Kuomintang, which faces the likelihood of heavy losses in presidential and legislative elections on Saturday.
As in past elections, the crucial political issue is China, and whether Taiwan's future lies in a closer relationship with its giant neighbor or an autonomous identity.
But after eight years of increasing trade ties, the question has taken on a deeply economic tone, as candidates from the Kuomintang and its main rival, the Democratic Progressive Party, debate the risk and reward of China's embrace.
People here are increasingly worried that growing cross-strait trade and investment and the large number of people from Taiwan working on the mainland are making Taiwan dangerously dependent on China, which claims the island as part of its territory and has tried to use its economic clout to buy influence.
Such concerns helped set off large protests in 2014 against the ruling party , the Kuomintang, which faces the likelihood of heavy losses in presidential and legislative elections on Saturday.
As in past elections, the crucial political issue is China, and whether Taiwan's future lies in a closer relationship with its giant neighbor or an autonomous identity.
But after eight years of increasing trade ties, the question has taken on a deeply economic tone, as candidates from the Kuomintang and its main rival, the Democratic Progressive Party, debate the risk and reward of China's embrace.