It is time to divert Taiwan’s trade and investment from China

Taiwan hasECFAECFA long depended on America for defence and China for growth. That worked when the two superpowers broadly co-operated. Taiwan flourished in an age of globalisation, building both a strong economy and its own security on hopes that free trade would prevent conflict. But in the process it became dependent on trade with its greatest threat. Now China is using its economic clout to isolate Taiwan.In 2010 Taiwan signed the Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (), a deal with China that allowed cross-strait trade to grow. China had been Taiwan’s leading trade partner since 2005, when it made up 17% of its trade flows. Last year China accounted for 25% of Taiwan’s exports and 20% of its imports, roughly the same shares as in 2016, when Tsai Ing-wen became president. She was elected after a student movement had protested against growing dependence on China. She herself had criticised the , but has not changed it as president. That is because her priority was stability, says Taiwan’s deputy minister of economic affairs, C.C. Chen. “From day one, when President Tsai took office, China has been our largest trade partner. We don’t want to rock the boat. We want to make it stable.”