The Chinese Communist Party‘s recent sudden suspension of imports of Taiwan pineapples has sparked international concern and led to more pineapples being purchased by the people of Taiwan and overseas buyers to support Taiwanese farmers. The Nikkei Asian Review reported that the Chinese Communist Party’s attempt to play the pineapple card to suppress Taiwan’s economy was out of luck.
The Nikkei reported on March 8 that after the Communist Party of China announced a ban on imports of Taiwan pineapples late last month, the ROC government immediately took action by launching the Freedom Pineapple (#FreedomPineapple) campaign to garner support on social media and call on individuals and companies to buy locally grown pineapples.
In just a few days, the total number of pineapple orders domestically and from countries such as Japan exceeded the number of pineapples exported to mainland China last year.
Taiwan launches free pineapple campaign with a big increase in sales
“Remember #Australia’s #FreedomWine?” Taiwanese Foreign Minister Wu Chiu-sup asked on Twitter, referring to a campaign last year that called on people around the world to buy Australian wine after the Chinese Communist Party imposed high tariffs of more than 200 percent on Australian wine.
Riley Walters, an economist at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Asian Studies, a U.S. think tank, also tweeted that nothing goes better with Australian wine than Taiwanese pineapple crisp, which tastes like The taste of “freedom”.
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said Beijing‘s ban on Taiwanese pineapples violates the rule-based foundation of free and fair trade.
President Tsai Ing-wen urged people to support farmers in southern Taiwan by eating pineapples. She said the Republic of China government plans to spend about NT$1 billion (US$36 million) to offset the impact of the ban, including expanding export markets, including increased exports to the United States, Japan and Singapore.
Exports account for only about 10 percent of Taiwan’s total pineapple production, but most Taiwanese pineapples are exported to China. According to the Taiwan Agricultural Council, Taiwan will export 45,621 tons in 2020, 97 percent of which will be exported to China, 2 percent to Japan and 1 percent to Hong Kong.
Vice President Lai Ching-teh said last Monday that pineapple orders from Japan, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Middle East are helping to replace those from mainland China, and that “traveling pineapples are looking forward to their new visas,” he said.
Last Tuesday, Taiwan’s Agriculture Minister Chen Jizhong announced that orders for Taiwanese pineapples had already surpassed last year’s total sales to China, with the public and businesses ordering 41,687 tons of pineapples in just four days.
Lai tweeted in Japanese that by Wednesday, Japan had ordered 5,000 tons (of pineapples), the “highest amount ever.
Experts: pineapple ban is a political signal from Beijing
Relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have deteriorated since Tsai Ing-wen became president in May 2016. The Chinese Communist Party has launched a series of ferocious economic and political campaigns in an attempt to isolate Taiwan. Beijing has used money to buy off Taiwan’s few international diplomatic allies, banned Chinese individuals from traveling to Taiwan, and suspended Chinese students from studying there.
The ROC government says this is the latest in a series of actions by Beijing aimed at undermining Taiwan’s economy and reducing Taiwanese support for Tsai and the DPP.
Beijing has so far rejected Taiwan’s request to lift the ban on pineapples, arguing that the ban is not political but about harmful organisms found in certain fruits last year. Taiwan counters that Beijing’s argument is unreasonable because 99.79 percent of Taiwan’s pineapples passed the Communist Party’s customs test last year.
Drew Thompson, a senior fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said targeting pineapples rather than all agricultural or other potential commodity exports suggests Beijing is “just [sending] a political signal.
I think it will only alienate Taiwanese farmers even more (from the Chinese Communist Party) and harden public opinion across Taiwan that trying to improve relations with China (the Communist Party) through trade is a challenge and a folly because the Communist Party will soon use trade as a means of coercion,” he said.
Global solutions needed to counter Beijing’s economic coercion
Beijing’s economic, diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan has been increasing in recent years, and Tsai has been working to reduce Taiwan’s economic dependence on China and increase trade with Southeast Asian countries, India, Australia and New Zealand. The ROC government has also urged a free trade agreement with the United States.
The U.S. diplomatic representation in Taipei expressed support for Taiwan after the Communist Party issued a ban on pineapples. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) posted a picture with pineapples on Facebook last Tuesday and asked users, “Did you get your pineapples today? AIT marked the end of the post with “real friends and real progress” and “unity and love pineapples”.
The Canadian office in Taiwan posted a photo of Canadian representatives, staff, pineapples and Hawaiian pizza on Facebook (click here to see the photo).
The UK shared a recipe for pineapple cake.
Thompson said Beijing’s economic coercion is not just directed at Taiwan, but is an ongoing “global challenge …… and one that does require global solutions. He believes there is not enough momentum in the international community to stand together in the trade arena to confront Beijing’s illegal actions.
Dennis Shea, a former deputy U.S. trade representative, has written that the CCP’s failure to comply with international norms uses its trade power as a bargaining chip.
Observers have also said that such bullying retaliation by the CCP has shown democracies around the world what the CCP is all about; if free societies continue to indulge it, once it replaces the United States and becomes the world’s top economy, it will be too late to contain it then.
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