File Photo: Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. Photo:Xinhua

The Taiwan authority is hindering Chinese mainland investment in Taiwan, prohibiting Taiwanese businesses from cooperating with mainland-related enterprises, which is hurting the interests and well-being of Taiwanese, Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said on Friday. 

Ma's comments came after the economic affairs authority of Taiwan announced on Tuesday that it is tightening regulations to prevent local businesses from distributing video content produced by mainland companies, starting September 3. 

The notice says that Taiwanese companies are not allowed to provide agencies and distribution, or engage in any way with over-the-top television (OTT-TV) and its intermediaries or related commercial services with groups and individuals from the mainland. Offenders will be fined from NT$100,000 ($3,403) to NT$5 million.

The island of Taiwan is moving to ban the Chinese mainland video streaming services of Tencent and Baidu's iQIYI, which observers said is to butter up to the US to encircle mainland tech companies. 

The Taiwan authority has deliberately manipulated anti-Chinese populism with various excuses and methods, and are following the anti-China forces in the West, further hindering mainland investment in Taiwan, prohibiting Taiwanese businesses from cooperating with mainland-related enterprises, creating cross-straits decoupling. It has once again exposed its true intention to destroy cross-Straits relations and harm the interests and well-being of Taiwanese, Ma said. 

In the first seven months of the year, trade between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan reached $134.94 billion, up 8.7 percent from the same period last year, and Taiwan had a surplus of more than $70 billion. Mainland firms hired nearly 25,000 staff in Taiwan, and their annual tax contribution averages more than NT$1.2 billion a year, Ma added. 

The Taiwan authority cannot change the general trend of cross-Straits economic and social integration and development, and will only compress Taiwan's development space, ruin Taiwan's development opportunities, and harm the well-being of the Taiwan people, Ma said.