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In September 2021, China banned the import of sugar apples, or atemoya, from Taiwan, claiming they were bringing in pests. Critics say pests are an excuse, and China is weaponizing trade with Taiwan. And this isn’t the first time. In February of 2021, China banned the import of Taiwanese pineapples, causing a backlog and threatening farmers’ livelihoods across the country.
The current situation is tied to a complex history that goes back to the Chinese civil war, and to recent tensions that go back to 2016, when Taiwan elected a new president. Since then, Chinese military incursions into Taiwan’s air space have been on the rise, and the relation between the two has kept deteriorating. Fruit is the latest expression of this.
To understand how this atemoya ban impacts farmers in Taiwan, and how it all ties together, watch our video.
Sources and further reading:
You can check out the data on Taiwan’s fruit exports here:
https://www.producereport.com/article/2019-taiwan-fruit-import-export-statistics-released-exports-mainland-china-43
To read more about the pineapple campaign and how it played out, check this out:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-05/china-s-ban-on-taiwan-pineapples-backfires-as-new-buyers-step-in
To read the Cross-Strait Agreement on Trade in Services, click here:
https://www.mac.gov.tw/public/Data/3859414471.pdf
To understand the Sunflower Movement in more depth, read this:
https://carnegieendowment.org/2018/08/02/activist-legacy-of-taiwan-s-sunflower-movement-pub-76966
For a deeper look at China’s military incursions, check this out:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/15/asia/taiwan-invasion-us-china-tensions-intl-dst-hnk/index.html
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