Beijing blames Taiwan trade moves on ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s independence stance

Chinese mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office says more measures could follow after last week’s announcement that tariff cuts on some products would be suspended

Taiwanese voters will elect their new president next month, with the independence-leaning DPP’s William Lai the current front runner

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Beijing has repeatedly attacked the DPP’s presidential candidate William Lai Ching-te. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:04pm, 27 Dec 2023Updated: 5:19pm, 27 Dec 2023

Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office has blamed the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s stance on independence for last week’s measures targeting imports from the island and warned that more could be on the way.

Chen Binhua, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office, said on Wednesday that the party’s attitude “is the root cause of the difficulty in resolving issues related to the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA)”.

Chen said that the DPP had rejected the 1992 consensus – an unofficial agreement that there is only one China but the parties may disagree about what that means – and was seeking independence.

He also said it had started “attacking” the ECFA before it came to power in 2016 and taken “discriminatory trade-restrictive measures” against the mainland, which had led to Beijing’s suspension of tariff concessions on 12 products effective from January 1.

Chen also said the Taiwan Affairs Office will support further trade measures if the DPP insists on a pro-independence stance.

Taiwanese voters will elect their next president on January 13. Beijing has repeatedly attacked the front runner, the DPP’s William Lai Ching-te, and his running mate Hsiao Bi-khim as supporters of Taiwan independence.

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