Taiwan Suspicious About China's Partial Lifting of Pomelo Ban

Officials are suspicious at China's reasons for partially lifting a ban on Taiwanese pomelos.

Transcript

00:00For these farmers, recent news out of Beijing is cause for celebration.

00:04China is partly lifting an import ban on pomelos from Taiwan.

00:08The large citrus fruit is a favorite in both China and Taiwan as summer turns to autumn.

00:13Before the ban, China was Taiwan's biggest market, buying several thousand tons of the

00:17fruit every year.

00:19The sudden ban in 2022, supposedly due to pesticides and quarantine issues, left farmers

00:24with a ruinous glut.

00:26Now fruit grown in Hualien County on the east coast will be allowed back in.

00:31But academics, China watchers and officials here in Taiwan are wary.

00:35Pomelos aren't the only product subject to sudden bans.

00:38They see a pattern, a carrot and stick policy meant to reinforce China's claim to Taiwan

00:43and use money to keep Taiwan in line.

00:46The pomelo ban came as then U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, a trip that enraged

00:52Beijing.

00:53And the partial lifting of the ban comes at a time when there are quarantine reasons to

00:57keep it in place.

00:59Forty-eight percent of this year's crop sampled has failed inspections for issues like bugs,

01:04prompting Hualien's government to step in.

01:24There's also suspicion about the fact that only Hualien is covered.

01:27Unlike the other major growing region in the south, Hualien's a stronghold for the KMT,

01:32a party China's been willing to sit down with in the past.

01:35Fu Kunqi, a big KMT figure from Hualien, even visited Beijing earlier this year.

01:41President Lai Qingde is among those with suspicions.

01:45He told a meeting of his Democratic Progressive Party that China made the announcement unilaterally.

01:50He says Beijing bypassed the platform for talks about quarantine issues, and didn't

01:54consult or tell Taiwan in advance.

02:06China's Taiwan Affairs Office has presented the move as a show of goodwill, saying it

02:11will work for the benefit of Taiwan's people.

02:13But in Taiwan itself, that hasn't stopped skepticism about China's motives, and what

02:18China hopes the partial lifting of the ban might achieve.

02:21James Lin and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.