China's minister of industry and information technology on Saturday urged Taiwan to be more open to mainland investment. He said this would strengthen ties and put the two sides on a path toward unification.

"We are very open to investment from Taiwan, and many Taiwanese companies have made a lot of money here," Miao Wei said. "We hope that openness should be more two-sided instead of one-sided."

He made the comments during a press conference on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, the country's parliament.

"We hope Taiwan could be more open to Chinese companies," Miao said. "This would be beneficial to both sides and also support our goal to facilitate unification and achieve the aim of one China."

China and Taiwan split amid a civil war in 1949, but Beijing continues to claim the self-ruling, democratic republic as its own. China has not renounced the use of force as a possible means to bring about unification.

Ties between Taipei and Beijing have cooled significantly since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party took office last May. Chinese officials view her as leading the island away from Beijing's pull.

Miao was answering a question that touched on technology competition between China and Taiwan as well as on Beijing-backed Tsinghua Unigroup's recent unsuccessful bids to acquire 25% stakes in three Taiwanese chip assemblers -- Siliconware Precision Industries Co., Powertech Technology and ChipMOS Technologies.

Miao said his ministry will continue to encourage Taiwanese investment in the mainland. This includes the $3 billion that

Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. (TSMC) is pouring into an advanced chip facility in the southern Chinese city of Nanjing. In addition, United Microelectronics is involved in a project in the southern coastal province of Fujian.

TSMC is the world's No. 1 contract chipmaker; UMC is No. 3.

By: DocMemory
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