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Why are we making economic enemies?
By Lai I-chung ¿à©É©¾
Saturday, Jan 23, 2010, Page 8
Google recently announced without warning that it was considering withdrawing
from the China market.
It said Chinese cyber criminals had compromised its Web site and tried to access
the Gmail account details of certain Chinese dissidents.
Forgetting, for the time being, any direct implications of this, there is one
particular aspect I would like to discuss.
The US and China are currently engaged in an economic dispute about the volume
of cheap Chinese imports, which is forcing US companies to lay off workers.
The US government and some multinationals are very unhappy about the Chinese
government¡¦s conduct in this case. This dispute is only going to get more heated
over the course of this year.
Against this backdrop, Taiwan¡¦s government is pressing on with plans to sign an
economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China, which will align
Taiwan more closely with the Chinese economy.
This will get Taiwan embroiled in difficult economic disputes with other
countries.
As Google was making its announcement, US journalist Gerald Posner posted a
story online discussing a confidential FBI report about the threat to US
national security by a Chinese cyber army.
According to the report, the 180,000-strong retinue of criminals had the cyber
equivalent of weapons of mass destruction at their disposal.
It says the People¡¦s Liberation Army has developed a network of more than 30,000
military cyber spies, plus more than 150,000 private-sector computer experts.
The Pentagon alone received more than 90,000 sophisticated systematic and
combined attacks last year, and this figure doesn¡¦t include attacks on other US
government departments, energy suppliers or other commercial institutions of
strategic importance.
In fact, many multinationals are coming close to losing their patience with
China.
Early last month, the directors and representatives of more than 70 chambers of
commerce and industry, including those based in the US, Canada, South Korea and
Japan, signed a joint letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao (JÀAÀÜ) that objected
to China¡¦s attitude toward unfair competition.
It appears that Google is not alone in its frustration with China¡¦s behavior.
Google does not have fixed investments in China, such as manufacturing plants or
equipment. Its decision to leave China is based on considerations of market
access alone.
Other companies may share Google¡¦s scruples, but cannot make the decision to
withdraw so lightly.
However, when those multinational companies that enthusiastically supported the
idea of permanent most-favored-nation status for China become frustrated, and
when this feeling of anger spills over to European, Japanese, Korean and
Canadian companies, it¡¦s not hard to see that the year ahead will see economic
disputes breaking out between China and other countries.
If the government is blind to this situation and steps up integration with
China, Taiwan may well find itself caught up in the economic dispute between
China and the US.
China is even getting Taiwanese companies to sell Iran equipment that can be
used in developing nuclear weapons.
This has prompted the EU to threaten action against Taiwan, and it is just the
tip of the iceberg.
Will the government really continue to insist on continuing with this kind of
economic suicide?
Lai I-chung is an executive member of Taiwan Thinktank.
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