Fluffy and crispy puffed corn is wrapped in fragrant condensed milk – the creamy coconut-flavored Sweet Corn Crisp has been a hit in China for years.
In addition to being delicious, the brand name “Goodbye,” which means “performing well,” has also made the snack a lucky charm, believed to have the power to make electronics work smoothly.
But the green packaging featuring the darling elf is disappearing from supermarket shelves in China.
These snacks are one of more than 2,000 Taiwanese products that Beijing has suspended imports following a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.
Other banned products include candy, soft drinks, pineapple cakes, soy sauce, instant noodles, enzymes, frozen fish and citrus fruits.
The banned goods account for about two-thirds of Taiwan’s food exports to mainland China, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.
But strangely, Beijing has not sanctioned Taiwan’s most important industry, chips.
“Symbolic sanctions”
This is not the first time Beijing has imposed economic sanctions on Taiwan in recent years.
In March 2021, China said Taiwanese pineapples may carry “harmful organisms”, posing a threat to Chinese agriculture.
Six months later, they also suspended the import of Taiwanese Sakyamuni and Lianwu for similar reasons.
Official explanations for the new sanctions were mixed.
While China’s state-run Beijing Evening News said the move was a “countermeasure” against Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs said earlier this week that some products were not marked as “Taiwan, China” because of their origin. It was intercepted by Chinese customs.
China’s General Administration of Customs said that the frozen white hairtail and frozen horse mackerel banned from import this time were “positive for the new coronavirus on the packaging”, and citrus fruits also contained harmful organisms and pesticides.
The Chinese government has not stated the specific reasons for the suspension of the import of Guobiao corn and other snacks.
The ABC has contacted China’s Ministry of Commerce for comment.
A spokesman for a Taiwanese baked goods company told the ABC they were caught off guard by Beijing’s ban, with exports of a total of six products including biscuits, confectionery and bread suspended.
The spokesperson asked that the company name not appear in the report due to concerns about the possible impact on the media statement.
“us[出口受阻]The reason is that the materials were not submitted as required,” the spokesman said.
But she said companies still don’t know exactly what material they failed to provide.
Taiwan’s Agriculture Council has pledged to take steps to support affected farmers and businesses.
Fan Jiazhong, a professor at the Department of Economics at National Taiwan University, said the economic impact of the sanctions on Taiwan was not significant.
“China’s sanctions now appear to be symbolic sanctions,” Professor Fan said.
“In terms of the total amount of Taiwan’s exports to China,[被禁食品]Probably less than 1%. “
Taiwan’s trade reliance on China is “very strong”, but one-third of its exports are semiconductors — and Beijing continues to keep its doors open, Prof Fan said.
Why is TSMC the “Sacred Mountain for Protecting the Country” in Taiwan?
Some have questioned why Beijing has an iron fist on food and agriculture, but instead let go of Taiwan’s most important industrial sector.
In particular, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (“TSMC” for short) is not only the largest microchip manufacturer on the island and even in the world, but also the only company that Pelosi visited during her trip to Taiwan.
Taiwan also refers to TSMC as the “Sacred Mountain for Protecting the Country” because it protects the island’s security and economy.
TSMC, currently valued at US$541 billion (A$778 billion), is the 10th largest company in the world by market value and has become a major chip supplier to technology companies including Apple, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
TSMC dominates the semiconductor market, accounting for 53.6% of the world‘s semiconductor foundry industry sales in the first quarter of 2022, according to Taiwan-based market intelligence firm TrendForce.
China’s 5G giant Huawei was TSMC’s second-largest customer until 2020, when the Trump administration ordered the company, which still relies on US chipmaking equipment, to stop taking orders from Huawei.
But it is still supplying products to other Chinese companies including Xiaomi, OPPO, Horizon Robotics and Bitmain.
All this has made TSMC attract the attention of both China and the United States.
TSMC has begun building a factory in Arizona before U.S. President Joe Biden signed the so-called “CHIPS and Science Act” this week, which will provide $52.7 billion in subsidies for semiconductor manufacturing and research.
In exchange, recipients of the funds are not allowed to expand semiconductor production in China or any other country that poses a threat to U.S. national security.
The move is intended to bolster America’s ability to compete with China in science and technology.
Meanwhile, China has also been trying to produce its own chips through its Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC, or “SMIC”).
However, according to a report by Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, since 2022, China has still imported more than US$62 billion (about A$89 billion) worth of semiconductor products from Taiwan.
Su Ziyun, a researcher at Taiwan’s National Institute for National Defense Security, said that China, as a “realist”, dare not impose trade sanctions on manufacturers like TSMC that are important to China’s economy.
“China is largely dependent on Taiwanese components,” he said.
“For the competition between the United States and China, TSMC is currently a very important key.”
“so[北京]Only the agricultural products and the pastry industry will be selected. “
“The competition between the two sides has entered the micro competition, which is today’s chips.”
“No one can console SMC by force”
In addition to the economic sanctions, Beijing has held a series of military exercises around Taiwan in return for Pelosi’s visit, which Taiwan’s foreign minister and others see as drills for an invasion.
A white paper titled “Taiwan Issue and China’s Unification in the New Era” released by Beijing on Wednesday stated that China “does not promise to renounce the use of force” and that if “‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces or external interfering forces provoked and persecuted” or “break through the red line” “, China will “have to take decisive measures”.
In addition, according to the white paper, after Taiwan’s economy becomes part of mainland China, it will enjoy a “more stable and smooth industrial supply chain” and “more vitality of innovation”.
So what will happen to TSMC if Beijing does invade?
Dr Su said Chinese control of the island would potentially damage TSMC’s manufacturing capabilities and attractiveness to Western customers.
“Particularly in democracies, personal privacy is a very important object of protection,” he said.
“If there is a red supply chain, it is very likely that these personal privacy data will flow to Chinese companies.”
TSMC CEO Mark Liu said a Chinese invasion would destroy the company.
In an interview with CNN earlier this month, he said China’s military attack on Taiwan “would make the TSMC factory inoperable.”
“This production facility is quite complex – it relies on real-time connections with the outside world, with Europe, with Japan, with the United States,” he said.
“No one can control SMC by force.”