China’s suspension of Taiwan pineapple imports has shocked both the government and the opposition. Although Taiwanese people from all walks of life are actively ordering pineapples to quickly make up for the 40,000 tons shortfall, now the issue has reached beyond pineapples to the “prevention of a total trade war!” The problem would be huge if it escalates from pineapples, mangoes, custard apples, to industrial products.

Following the steps of Trump, President Tsai Ing-wen has also repeatedly increased the ban on Chinese products in Taiwan (banning China’s Huawei mobile phones, banning China’s drones, banning China’s books, banning China’s face masks, banning China’s speedometers, banning China’s sweeping robots, banning China’s Taobao, banning China’s Lenovo, banning China’s vaccines, banning China’s nucleic acid testing, banning China’s iQiyi, banning China’s electric buses, etc.). In addition to the constant verbal insults with the term “Wuhan pneumonia” and the humiliation of China’s vaccines, these bans have been wearing down the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to cause the ban on Chinese tourists and students to Taiwan. Now it is escalated to pork and pineapples, but these warnings don’t seem to make the Tsai administration ready to yield and compromise, which continues to build up the momentum for a fierce fight.

Taiwan’s fruit farmers are not “Tsai Ing-wen’s administration team” but innocent and vulnerable people. The Tsai administration doesn’t care about their income, and will only use this to tell farmers that China cannot be trusted or relied on. The poor farmers can only accept it.

The Tsai administration has repeatedly promoted domestically that even if there is a large surplus in cross-strait trade, the fact is that China relies more on us than we on China, so China dares not touch Taiwan. Is it true? In the end, what does China rely on us for? Can the Tsai administration tell us with facts and figures, so that we can be proud of Taiwan?

Our country’s patron god is tSMC. Together with UMC and MediaTek, they create a global dependence on Taiwan, so we are fearless! How could Taiwan be intimidated by a ban on pineapples of a mere NT$1.4 billion? How can Taiwan’s pineapple nationalism be sacred off by China? In the worst scenario, we could demand tSMC to withdrawn its capital from their factories in China and retreat to Taiwan!

In fact, it is a very boring question to argue about who depends on whom in bilateral trades. Last year, we exported nearly 200 billion U.S. dollars worth of goods to China, accounting for about 45% of our total exports. The surplus is 140.5 billion U.S. dollars, which is the main source of our foreign exchange. Among the exported products, electronic components (including wafers) accounted for more than 20 billion U.S. dollars, followed by products for communication, vision, and optics, which are provided by our high-tech industries. China mostly assembles and reprocesses these products for their further exports, forming a complete industry chain.

If a full-scale cross-strait trade war occurs, and as a result the industry chain breaks, we will lose a large chunk of income for a while, and China will also lose a chunk of businesses in processing and export, and both sides with be hurt. But in terms of overall proportions, we will be hurt much more severely.

But in fact, this is not critical, because if high-tech products are not sold to China, stock prices will tumble, but employment is not too much affected. The problem is agricultural products, financial services, petrochemicals, machinery and other products on the early harvest list. Don’t look at the amount of “merely” billions of dollars, the number of employees is huge, the industries are highly concentrated and dependent, they are difficult to be transformed into other industries, and the supply of China’s demands could be easily substituted. Originally, market access for Taiwan was a kind gesture of China. Once China gets angry and starts a fight there, people will suffer!

On the eve of the full-scale trade war that may be about to be ignited, we can see that the Tsai administration continues their call to battle and widens the rift, putting people’s livelihood at risk. I hereby call onto President Tsai with anguish, “do not sacrifice until we reach the last moment,” please immediately activate the mechanisms of national security and cross-strait communication, request rapid consultation and practical discussions, and compromise for a solution.

Of course, we also have to ask President Xi Jinping to let Taiwanese farmers go. “Do not give up on peace until we reach the last moment.” Taiwan independence is not a consensus in Taiwan. A full-scale trade war is absolutely unnecessary. Both sides of the Strait must persist with ration, pragmatism, and harmony. A moment of forbearance gives you peace after a storm, and one step back gives you the whole world.

(Jaw Shaw-Kong, media personality)

Click here for Chinese version

We invite you to join the conversation by submitting columns to our opinion section: [email protected]

Apple Daily reserves the right to refuse, abridge, alter or edit guest opinion columns for accuracy, length, clarity, and style, and the right to withdraw and withhold columns based on the discretion of our editorial page editors.

The opinions of the writers do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board.

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play