Economics Minister Woody Duh says Taiwan does not need China’s approval when holding trade talks with other countries.
Duh’s comments came Thursday. He was responding to comments made by China’s ambassador to Malaysia recently. In a speech on China-Malaysia ties at the University of Malaysia on Tuesday, Chinese ambassador Huang Huikang said Beijing is opposed to official exchanges between Taipei and Kuala Lumpur. Huang said that includes signing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) since , as he said, “Taiwan is part of China.”
Duh refuted Huang’s comments, saying that Taiwan is sovereign.
"The Chinese official made the comments from his political perspective. But from our perspective, Taiwan does not need China’s approval when holding FTA talks or negotiating economic cooperation agreements with other countries," he said. It’s possible, however, that China might use its political clout to influence those countries."
Duh said because of China’s maneuvers, the government has put a greater emphasis on the importance of maintaining peaceful cross-strait ties. Only by doing so, Duh said, will Taiwan be able to remove barriers when pushing for regional economic integration.