Well-known Taiwanese restaurant chain Din Tai Fung announced it will pull out of Northern China entirely by the end of October. While locations in other parts of the country will not be affected, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) says this shows the changing economic conditions in China compared to when Ding Tai Fung initially invested in the Chinese market.
In an exclusive interview with FTV's "News Observation", Cho said that China’s economy has suffered post-pandemic. While trying to rebuild, national policies wrestled with the contradictory goals of rescuing the economy and demonstrating military power. Cho says that as long as Chinese leadership fails to see the contradiction in these efforts, it would be difficult for the nation’s economy to see short-term improvement–especially as trade and technology competition with the United States remains ongoing.
Cho says that China, like Taiwan, should prioritize the welfare of its citizens and country over military expansion. He added that no one wishes to compete with China and that he hopes for mutual non-affiliation and non-aggression between both sides of the Taiwan Strait, advocating for peaceful stability and prosperous development.