[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] Although Taiwan is in conflict with mainland China over the "One China" principle, its trade dependence on China has reached an all-time high.
On the 27th, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that Taiwan's exports to China have surged over the past six months and are expected to set a record high this year.
According to Taiwan's Ministry of Finance, exports to China, including Hong Kong, in the first half of this year reached $66.8 billion, up 9.8% compared to the same period last year, driven by strong demand for semiconductors and other electronic and telecommunications products. Taiwan's export share to China accounted for 42.3%, which is also 3.6 percentage points higher than the same period last year. Taiwan's trade dependence on China is the highest in the past decade.
Taiwan's export growth rate to China is about twice that of exports to the United States (4.5%) and Japan (3.5%). Taiwan's export shares to the United States and Japan account for 14.5% and 7.4% of total exports, respectively.
Experts diagnose that although relations between Taiwan and mainland China are poor and President Tsai Ing-wen is trying to reduce dependence on China by embracing India and ASEAN countries, Taiwan's economic dependence on mainland China has actually increased. Wu Yi, a researcher at the Taiwan Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, "It shows that the industrial supply chain between mainland China and Taiwan is solid, making a complete structural change difficult."
However, some express concerns that if Taiwan stops exports of advanced technology to China at the request of the United States due to worsening US-China relations, the boom in Taiwan's exports to China may not last long.
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