President Chen Shui-bian met the winners of the 8th "Shopkeepers' Excellence Awards" on the morning of January 9, 2006 and expressed his highest respect and appreciation for their hard work and devotion, which have provided greater convenience for their fellow countrymen.
Chen said that as the nation's leader, he has to play the role of the shopkeeper of the "Taiwan store." We are not trying to compete in military buildup where China has 80 submarines and we only have two. But if the people of Taiwan have no sense of security, how can consumers have the confidence to make purchases? Under this underlying threat, we must be on the alert and be careful not to provoke. Furthermore, we must create an atmosphere where the enemy dare not strike and if they do strike, they will have to pay the highest price. Our war preparations are not to go on the offensive, but are preventative and are aimed at avoiding a war. They serve as bargaining chips and contingencies in future developments of cross-Strait negotiations.
The President also said that 40% of export products were produced overseas, 90% of which were produced in China. Given that China views Taiwan with enmity and does not rule out the possibility of attacking Taiwan, this is an extremely precarious situation for Taiwan, he said. Moreover, China passed the Anti-separation Law to serve as the legal rationale to attack Taiwan. If Taiwan should consider china as a friend like the United States and Japan, this would become our greatest internal concern. The trade policy with China at the Economic Development Advisory Conference in 2001 was determined to be "Proactive liberalization with effective management." At the time, it was believed that only through effective management, could there be proactive liberalization in the trade relationship, but the unfortunate result has been people pressing forward toward liberalization without paying much attention to management.
Chen then stressed his opinion that he does not want business concerns not to go to China, but he wants them to be clearly rooted in Taiwan, to have their core operations in Taiwan, to do their research and development in Taiwan and to keep their headquarters in Taiwan. With this approach, the whole world market is an option for them, inclusive of the most lucrative market for Taiwanese business--China, but they must work from a premise that their roots are in Taiwan and have their heart in Taiwan. If the Taiwanese economy is slanted toward China, then Taiwan is walking a path to end in suicide. Many believe in maintaining the status quo, but if maintaining the status quo means to continue leaning toward China, then this so-called "status quo" is one of changing the status quo. As such, we are not adopting a policy of isolation or a policy that calls for retrenchment in the cross-Strait relationship, but is one of effective management aimed at limiting the damage at unnecessary risks that result from the liberalization.