you may not realize it, but investment (even real estate) goes through all kinds of government approval channels, much less the Central Bank of China (Taiwan) having a HUGE say in it (think of the sheet us foreigners have to go through to bring money legally into Taiwan even with our ARCs and multiply that by 1000 or more).
On a technical, theoretical level, people from China have been “allowed” to buy Taiwan real estate since MYJ era, but being in the know, I’ve never heard of one case (though possibly a few slipped by), individual or company. The hoops they have to jump through are near impossible.
Otherwise, Taipei real estate would’ve never peaked a few years ago.
What I tried to say was that Mayor Han is attempting to “relax” these red tapes on Chinese investment to Taiwan. These regulations are there in place, precisely to keep strong independent decision making for self determined Taiwan. His stance on aggressive attempt to “relax” the regulation and overly invite Chinese investment is indeed dangerous.
he cannot. he’s just a mayor.
heck, the KMT ran the central government for 8 years and couldn’t get any real estate investment case into Taiwan with (official) ChiComm money.
I’ve heard there are all kinds of back doors that are used, widely. No idea about first hand experience though as I don’t speculate in the property market. : P
Supposedly mainland Chinese investment is insignificant even with the backdoors.
There’s definitely some Hong Kong money too, into airbnbs and hotels, but again not massive numbers in the regular market I think.
Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) during a speech in Los Angeles on Sunday (April 14) claimed that Taiwan’s economy has deteriorated under the rule of Taiwan’s three most recent presidents, all of whom received law degrees from National Taiwan University (NTU).
Han, who was an English literature major at Soochow University and received his Master’s in East Asian Studies at National Chengchi University
He’s got a point. They’re called technocrats and typically surround themselves with their own like, who rarely live/work in the real world.
DPP leaders
William Lai: graduated from NTU with bachelor degree in rehabilitation.
Su Tseng-chang: NTU law school
Annette Lu: NTU law school
Yu Shyi-kun: bachelor degree in politics at SCU
KMT leaders
Wu Dun-Yi: graduated from NTU with bachelor degree in history
Eric Chu: bachelor degree in management at NTU
Hung Hsiu-chu: law degree from SCU
So, Taiwanese voters should reject any NTU graduate, no matter what degree, and any candidate with a law degree, no matter what school.
it does for Taiwan. NTU graduates are a different breed. like joining a combined sorority/fraternity for rest of life. Opens up doors everywhere in Taiwan.
Yeah but they aren’t the reason that there have been economic problems. This is the usual attention seeking ‘trumpian sound bite’ from Han.
Apart from the main reason (China ) the real problem is that politicians in Taiwan are too old and follow '80s industrial mindsets.
China - Taiwan trade figures from 1999 to 2017, covering the three presidents. It tripled under CSB, went up and down under Ma, and increased again under Tsai.
Several members of the Taiwanese elite say we can ignore China; they think that if China sends over a military aircraft, it’s not Taiwan’s problem. But … [this] is a blind spot in their thinking. The people who think that way are like ostriches, burying their heads in the sand. They don’t want to face the reality that there is a military threat from our neighbor. We must find ways to protect Taiwan’s 23 million citizens, for our safety and for our economy.
Taiwan is already accustomed to democracy. Taiwan has grown up in an atmosphere of democracy in the past few decades, so there is absolutely no way we can accept the theory of “One Country, Two Systems.”
Washington D.C. wants Taiwan to love America. Beijing wants Taiwan to love China. But Taiwan is wondering, who’s going to love us? No one asked Taiwan what we want. This isn’t fair.
We have a population of 23 million people, and no one asked what we want.
Taiwan doesn’t want to be caught in a war between two elephants. We want to have the wisdom to navigate our own path and benefit from both countries.