The Chinese mainland has suspended imports of several agricultural products from the island of Taiwan amid simmering tensions over US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, which is seen as a serious violation of the one-China principle and sparked military exercises around the island by the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Starting Wednesday, Chinese mainland customs authorities suspended the entry of citrus fruits including grapefruits, lemons and oranges, as well as two types of fish, chilled largehead hairtail and frozen horse mackerel from the Taiwan region in accordance with the mainland's regulations and food safety requirements.
"The ban on an increasing number of Taiwan fruits and seafood may drag down Taiwan's GDP by 0.1 percentage point," Dai Shugeng, a professor of economics at Xiamen University. He calculated that Taiwan's GDP will plunge into contraction if the mainland bans all kinds of products, as the mainland's contribution to the region's GDP is 21.72%.
Exports of natural sand from the mainland to Taiwan will also be suspended, which is seen as another powerful weapon to add economic and political pressure on the Tsai government over secessionist acts.
It is worth noting that this is the second time the mainland has halted exports of the raw material - widely used in the construction sector - to the region.
