Taiwan Photo: Unsplash

It is the best choice for China's Taiwan island to engage in the "dual circulation" of the Chinese mainland instead of developing its own "dual circulation" plan due to Taiwan's relative small economic scale and incomplete industry categories.

China has vowed to deepen its reform to create a new development pattern featuring "dual circulation," under which the country will strive to improve the allocation of resources, pursue coordinated regional development and open the economy further. 

The experts' comment followed a recent editorial by Taiwan's Commercial Times, in which it pointed out the necessity for the island to achieve its own "dual circulation."

Taiwan has tried to use electronic information and biotechnology industries as its dual engine to boost the island's economy in the past, but that ultimately failed, according to the article, which suggested that Taiwan's export prospect in the future are bound to be more severe given the current China-US trade war, the COVID-19 pandemic and intensifying tensions in cross-Straits relations.

Lian Ping, President of China Chief Economist Forum, told the Global Times that Taiwan's economic scale is small, its industrial categories are incomplete, and its economic development is heavily dependent on the outside world. 

"Therefore, it lacks the foundation to build the dual circulation," said Lian.

Tang Yonghong, deputy director of the Taiwan Research Center at Xiamen University, told the Global Times that Taiwan is a small economy that needs to operate with global resources.

"At present, it needs to maintain good relations with the mainland economy which is at the center of economic globalization, and carry out free and convenient cooperation and integrated development, so that it can effectively integrate resources outside the island," Tang said.

Taiwan is extremely anxious after the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement as it has no hope of joining the RCEP or the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), said Lian.

After years of negotiations, China and 14 other economies signed the RCEP, the world's largest trade deal, earlier this month, forming a free trade zone in the Asia-Pacific region that will encompass a third of the global economy.

China is open to the idea of joining the CPTPP, the Commerce Ministry said last Thursday.

"The best choice for Taiwan is to maintain interaction with the mainland's economy, and to hook up with the mainland's industrial chain, which will undoubtedly mean better development opportunities for Taiwan," Lian noted.

As the global pandemic batters its economy, the island of Taiwan's economic reliance on the mainland has risen to a higher level. In the first 10 months of 2020, the mainland's imports from Taiwan have increased by 14.8 percent to $161.34 billion, the latest data from the General Administration of Customs showed.