Victor González 欧谷国
Victor's excerpt from the article: "'Taiwanese investment in China plunged in 2023 to just over 10% of the island’s total outbound direct investment, the lowest share in decades and well below its fast-growing spending in the U.S. and Germany.
Even as Taiwan’s approved foreign direct investment between January and November jumped 87% on the year to $25.7 billion, investment in China slumped 34% to $2.9 billion. The drop-off stems from China’s economic doldrums as well as from the influence of the long-standing and mounting tensions between the two sides. Taiwanese companies are also finding it harder to do business on the mainland amid the friction between Washington and Beijing that has led to American duties on Chinese goods. Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party administration led by President Tsai Ing-wen, who has taken a hard-line approach to Beijing while moving closer to the U.S., seeks to reduce the island’s economic dependence on China.'
'Taiwanese spending in China has plummeted from not only the peak of 84% in 2010, when Taiwan and China signed the equivalent of a free trade agreement, but even from 2022, when China still accounted for 34% of Taiwan’s investment. This year’s total is expected to clock in at less than half of the 30-year low of 28%, marked in 1999. Investment in Europe and the U.S. has skyrocketed in its place. Taiwanese foreign direct investment in the U.S. surged ninefold in the January-November period to $9.6 billion, making up 37% of the total. Spending in Germany alone soared past the China figure, ballooning 25-fold to $3.9 billion, driven by such chip-related investment as a new Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plant. Taiwanese investment in the U.S. is expected to come in at about triple the tally for China for the full year, putting the U.S. on top for the first time since Taiwan began allowing direct investment in China in 1993.'
'Around 800,000 Taiwanese are doing business in China while some 70% of the island’s approximately 1,700 listed companies have invested there. But the two sides are rethinking not only their political relationship, but also their economic ties. Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government has been ratcheting up pressure on Taiwan to unify with China. China in August reviewed all 2,509 products of which Taipei has banned Chinese imports, and hinted at the possibility of suspending preferential tariff rates for the island. Ahead of Taiwan’s presidential election in January, DPP candidate William Lai, who looks to keep following Tsai’s path away from economic reliance on China, is leading in the polls. But regardless of the outcome, with China’s economy still stagnating and Washington and Beijing still battling over advanced technology, Taiwan’s spending in China looks unlikely to bounce back anytime soon.'”