The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced a draft bill that would ban Chinese-funded companies from operating research and development (R&D) offices in Taiwan, while toughening rules governing Chinese for-profit businesses establishing subsidiaries in the nation.
The draft amendments to the Measures to Approve Chinese For-profit Businesses Establishing Subsidiaries or Offices in Taiwan (大陸地區之營利事業在臺設立分公司或辦事處許可辦法) state that no Chinese-funded companies may perform R&D activities in Taiwan, with the bill defining “research” as “conducting or compiling market-related analysis and statistics,” the ministry said.
If passed, the bill would change the name of the law to Measures for Approving Chinese For-profit Businesses or its For-profit
NATIONAL ASSETS: Amendments proposed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs seek to clamp down on Chinese companies opening offices to poach Taiwanese tech talentBy Huang Pei-chun and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Economic officials should ignore the faulty definition of Chinese investment that has led to a “leaky faucet” allowing unmitigated capital into Taiwan, the Economic Democracy Union said yesterday, calling for a Control Yuan investigation into top officials who created the definition.
The problem started in 2009, when the Ministry of Economic Affairs passed the Measures Governing Investment Permits to the People of the Mainland Area (大陸地區人民來台投資許可辦法), union researcher Hsu Kuan-tze (許冠澤) told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
He said that the measures stipulate investment qualifications that leave loopholes for Chinese investors.
In particular, Article 3 defines a controlling share
The government on Wednesday declared Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television a Chinese-funded company after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) first raised the issue on Monday.
Liu said that due to investment by Chinese State Council-funded Bauhinia Culture Holdings and state-owned China Mobile, the local operations of the channel should be restricted.
Economic Democracy Union researcher Chiang Min-yen (江旻諺) on Wednesday echoed Liu, saying that regardless of Phoenix being a Chinese state-funded firm or a channel for the dissemination of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda, it should be subject to restrictions stipulated in the Measures Governing Investment Permits to the People