Far East Tone Tries to Force Taiwan Opening Up To Direct Chinese Investment

A few months ago I closed down my Far East Tone mobile account because they had made an agreement with China Mobile to sell 12% of their shares to China Mobile and put a China Mobile person on the Far East Tone Board. The move was, and still is illegal. Todau, news came through that shocked me and I think vindicated my decision to boycott Far East Tone. The company, against the law, intend to go ahead with a sale of stock to China Mobile through a third party 'Taiwanese' company owned 100% by China Mobile. The Far East Tone Chairman made his intentions quite plain:

Wang and Far EasTone Chairman Douglas Hsu agreed to a strategic alliance at a meeting in Hong Kong last year. China Mobile won the right to buy a 12 percent stake in the Taiwanese company for NT$17.77 billion and to obtain one seat on its board, but the agreement was never officially approved by the government.


The Far EasTone board approved it last June 16. Even though Taiwan’s law does not allow Chinese investments in the telecommunications sector, Hsu said that more liberal opening measures were the trend of the future, and the sooner the better.

China Mobile's Chairman seemed almost boastful of his ability to circumvent the Government and, by extension, the will of the Taiwanese people:

China Mobile Chairman Wang Jianzhou told reporters he had a 100-percent stake in a new company in Taiwan specifically formed to take a share in the Taiwanese cell phone service operator, according to Hong Kong television reports from Beijing, where the businessman is attending a political conference.

Note that the China Mobile Chairman is attending a political conference and then takes time to boast of his imminent capture of a slice of Far East Tone via a Taiwanese registered company that is simply a front for direct and outlawed China Mobile investment. If this succeeds I fear the Ma administration's ability to steer its own course of foreign policy will soon be in severe jeopardy. If businesses can just ignore the Government or force it to enact policy in response to ameliorating a situation of lawbreaking by passing a law to sanction such lawbreaking Taiwan's democracy and the credibility of its representative institutions, not to mention the rule of law, will also be utterly undermined.


Time to take a boycott of Far East Tone a little more seriously folks?