Taiwan Questions China’s Suitability for Pacific Trade Pact, Fears ‘Obstruction’

Read MoreTAIPEI–China’s restrictive practices present fundamental problems for its application to join a major pan-Pacific free trade pact, and if it joins before Taiwan there is a risk it could block their application, the island’s economy minister said. Taiwan and China both applied last month to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), but China says it opposes Taiwan joining. The Chinese regime claims the island as its own, despite the fact that Taiwan is a de facto independent country, with its own military, democratically-elected government, and constitution. “If China enters first, certainly there is a risk of them obstructing Taiwan,” Taiwan Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday. “Taiwan joining anything, they oppose.” The Chinese regime says it has the right to represent Taiwan’s 23.5 million people in international bodies regardless of the island’s claim that it is an independent country. Beijing …