Really Going WTO?  (c) Simon Xi Zhang, 2002

Since September 1996, Taiwan has adopted a "no haste, be patient" policy on economic cross-strait relations, restricting Taiwanese investment in China. It was not welcomed by domestic Taiwanese business and the resentment erupted after the Asian financial crisis hit Taiwan. The severing domestic economic situation and restriction on investment in China would work together pushing Taiwanese business to a dead end. Facing the protest from domestic industries and the incoming accession to WTO, Taiwanese Government substituted "no haste, be patient" with new Basic Principles on economic and trade relations with mainland China, in August 2001[49].

Under the guidance of Basic Principles, the Executive Yuan adopted "active opening, effective management" as the new policy governing invest-in-mainland issues[50]. Since the administration of overseas investment is not a subject of WTO, it is not addressed in details in this article. Major improvements include the substantial increase of ceiling limitation on amount of mainland investment, permission of direct investment, permission of direct financial transaction between Offshore Banking Units (OBU) and those Chinese bank branches located in mainland. As discussed in prior parts, improvement in mainland investment policy is beneficial to cross-strait trade.