Taiwanese businesspeople based in China have gathered at a Lunar New Year banquet in Taiwan, both to hear from officials and to make sure officials hear their concerns.
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00:00Lion dancers welcome a gathering of Taiwanese business people back home from China for the
00:06Lunar New Year.
00:07This annual banquet is a chance for these entrepreneurs, whose livelihoods depend on
00:11friendly ties with China, to hear from Taiwanese officials and make sure officials, in turn,
00:16hear them.
00:18The event's cordial, but not far in the background, are concerns about policy and politics at
00:23a time when relations with Beijing are far from cozy.
00:27China claims Taiwan, and isn't shy about using economic as well as military pressure
00:32to achieve its aims.
00:33President Lai Ching-de repeated his view that sovereignty is key.
00:37The international community's pursuit of peace is achieved through force.
00:45Taiwan should not be excluded.
00:49But signs of unease about the way things have been going, both at home and abroad, soon
00:53showed.
00:55One business leader, based in the Chinese city of Xiamen, surprised the gathering by
00:59speaking out against recent political turbulence, with Taiwan's two main parties threatening
01:04to take down each other's lawmakers with a mass recall campaign.
01:08He addressed Lai directly, not as president, but as chairman of his Democratic Progressive
01:12Party, one of the two parties involved.
01:25Officials at the event sought to calm nerves.
01:41But any political instability would bring uncertainty for businesses.
01:45And on top of everything else, Taiwan doesn't have absentee voting, meaning these business
01:49people would need to fly back to Taiwan again just to have a say on any recall measure.
01:55Business people also used the event to voice their hope that Chinese tourists will be able
01:59to come back to Taiwan soon, and that flight routes cancelled during COVID will come back
02:03into service.
02:05But there were also notes of gloom, with one speaker predicting any thaw between Taiwan
02:09and China will be tough at a time when Taiwan's main security guarantor, the US, is locked
02:14in its own tussles with China over trade and chips.
02:18When these business people go back to China to start a new year of work, it's clear they'll
02:22do so with mixed feelings, facing a challenging environment at home and abroad.
02:27Patrick Chen and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.