Photo: VCG

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities are kowtowing to and currying favor with Washington, selling out Taiwan island's core industries, sacrificing the island's industrial development prospects, and undermining the interests and well-being of the Taiwan people, Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a press briefing on Wednesday, in response to questions about DPP authorities' concessions in a recent tariff agreement on non-semiconductor items with the US.

The US recently announced so-called preferential tariff measures granted to Taiwan island under Section 232 tariffs on non-semiconductors. These measures cover auto parts as well as raw logs, lumber and wood derivative products, with tariff rates not exceeding 15 percent. The Taiwan administrative body has claimed that the preferential treatment obtained by the island is on par with that granted to the EU, Japan and South Korea, and will help boost the competitiveness of related industries.

Asked to comment on the issues, Zhu said that the DPP authorities have made concessions amounting to a "bleeding" giveaway — including investing $500 billion in the US and imposing zero tariffs on 4,885 US industrial products and 1,482 agricultural products, but have only exchanged for symbolic tariff preferences. 

"Yet the DPP authorities still have the nerve to boast about it and present it as their own achievement, which is completely self-deceptive," Zhu said. She added that such perverse actions cannot deceive Taiwan's industrial sector or the public; the DPP authorities will only reap the bitter consequences and become a laughingstock.

Global Times