Beijing offers Taiwan new benefits

The announcement came at the end of the two-day forum on cross-strait economic and business cooperation held in Beijing between senior Chinese officials and a delegation led by Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Honorary Chairman Lien Chan, who is calling for increased trade ties between the island and the mainland.

The latest concessions to Taiwan were announced by Chen Yunlin, director of the Chinese Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office.

The measures to be adopted by Beijing will expand the number of Chinese city governments that are authorized to issue permits for Taiwanese to enter the mainland and will allow Taiwanese to apply for licenses to practice medicine in China.

The Chinese government will also allow Taiwanese to apply for jobs as Chinese customs inspectors and recognize diplomas issued by Taiwanese universities.

Beijing will add four types of Taiwan-grown fruit to a list of 18 varieties that can be imported to the mainland, extend tax-free import status to 11 new types of vegetables and let Taiwanese fishing boats sell their catch in mainland markets.

In addition, mainland produce-marketing cooperatives will organize buying trips to Taiwan during fruit harvest season.

China will set up a marketing center in Xiamen, the mainland port city closest to Taiwan, to “bring convenience and reduce cost for Taiwan’s fruit imports.”

Beijing already announced an earlier round of concessions for Taiwanese farm imports during a visit last year by Lien.

But the Chinese officials and delegates to the forum also called for both sides to speed up the process of opening direct transport links across the Taiwan Strait and allow the financial institutions between the two sides to set up branches to on respective sides on a reciprocal basis.

The Beijing officials welcomed farmers in Taiwan to make investments on the mainland and promised to crack down on suppliers of farm goods that falsely claim that their products come from Taiwan.

President Chen Shui-bian has rejected the business gathering as propaganda meant to create a false image of goodwill ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s forthcoming trip to Washington.

KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou said Chen simply shows his anxiety and uneasiness over the irresistible trends concerning the people’s relationships and economic development between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

But senior officials at the Executive Yuan (Cabinet) said in Taipei that they welcomed the new measures to be implemented by Beijing as long as they are beneficial to the people but are not involved with the sovereignty issue.

Yet Hu Shen-cheng, chairman of the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development, said it would be impossible for the two sides to discuss the issues like forming a common market between the mainland and the island if Beijing does not recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty.

The the Ministry of Education (MOE) reiterated its decision not to recognize the diplomas issued by schools and universities on the mainland, although Beijing took the unilateral preferential move to Taiwan.

The number of Taiwan students pursuing studies there has been increasing every year.

Officials at the Financial Supervisory Commission said that any discussions on the cooperation in the financial sector and on financial monitoring must be conducted under the principles of equality and mutual benefits.

Many Taiwan financial institutions, securities firms, and insurance companies have opened offices on the mainland while none from the mainland has been allowed to set up offices on the island.

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