Officials are suspicious at China's reasons for partially lifting a ban on Taiwanese pomelos.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00For these farmers, recent news out of Beijing is cause for celebration.
00:04China is partly lifting an import ban on pomelos from Taiwan.
00:08The large citrus fruit is a favorite in both China and Taiwan as summer turns to autumn.
00:13Before the ban, China was Taiwan's biggest market, buying several thousand tons of the
00:17fruit every year.
00:19The sudden ban in 2022, supposedly due to pesticides and quarantine issues, left farmers
00:24with a ruinous glut.
00:26Now fruit grown in Hualien County on the east coast will be allowed back in.
00:31But academics, China watchers and officials here in Taiwan are wary.
00:35Pomelos aren't the only product subject to sudden bans.
00:38They see a pattern, a carrot and stick policy meant to reinforce China's claim to Taiwan
00:43and use money to keep Taiwan in line.
00:46The pomelo ban came as then U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, a trip that enraged
00:52Beijing.
00:53And the partial lifting of the ban comes at a time when there are quarantine reasons to
00:57keep it in place.
00:59Forty-eight percent of this year's crop sampled has failed inspections for issues like bugs,
01:04prompting Hualien's government to step in.
01:24There's also suspicion about the fact that only Hualien is covered.
01:27Unlike the other major growing region in the south, Hualien's a stronghold for the KMT,
01:32a party China's been willing to sit down with in the past.
01:35Fu Kunqi, a big KMT figure from Hualien, even visited Beijing earlier this year.
01:41President Lai Qingde is among those with suspicions.
01:45He told a meeting of his Democratic Progressive Party that China made the announcement unilaterally.
01:50He says Beijing bypassed the platform for talks about quarantine issues, and didn't
01:54consult or tell Taiwan in advance.
02:06China's Taiwan Affairs Office has presented the move as a show of goodwill, saying it
02:11will work for the benefit of Taiwan's people.
02:13But in Taiwan itself, that hasn't stopped skepticism about China's motives, and what
02:18China hopes the partial lifting of the ban might achieve.
02:21James Lin and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.