China suspends sand exports to Taiwan in August 2022.
Context
On August 3, 2022, Beijing officially announced a suspension of natural sand exports to Taiwan (at the same time also announcing import bans on Taiwanese food products). Announcing the move, China’s commerce ministry did not give any reason for the suspension, only (reportedly) stating that “[s]uch a move was based on laws and regulations”.
The crucial political context here was China’s retaliation following the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan on August 2. Reporting in Chinese state media emphasized the likely strong impact of this suspension, with one China Daily article citing a former vice-minister of commerce, Wei Jianguo, as saying that the suspension would have “an impact on the latter’s chip manufacturing industry”. Other external Chinese media sources also emphasised the political motive behind China’s export ban.
Notably, some natural sands are used in silicon chip manufacturing – a key Taiwanese industry – though Taipei has claimed that it does not rely on Chinese commodities for this industry, and reporting largely focused on the impact on Taiwan’s construction industry.
Impact
The New York Times cited Bureau of Mines data in claiming that only around 11% of Taiwan’s imports of this commodity came from mainland China in the first six months of 2022. This was not the first time that Beijing had banned natural sand exports, with a previous one-year ban in 2007 being imposed due to cited “environmental concerns”. The below figure from Quartz reporting shows the decline in Taiwan’s imports of Chinese sand over time:
Reporting suggested that between the previous iteration of China’s sand export suspension in 2007, and that of 2022, Taiwan had taken steps to reduce its import dependency on this commodity.
Responses
i) Taiwanese responses
Authorities in Taiwan responded by downplaying the significance of this measure. The Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement that the ban would be of “limited impact” because its sand imports from China had already been declining in previous years. Taiwanese authorities also claimed that increases in domestic production through dredging had lessened the need for sand imports.
(ii) Other Parties
Following the crisis in Cross-Strait relations brought about by China’s response to US Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, both the US-Australia-Japan trilateral strategic dialogue and the G7+ EU foreign ministers meeting produced statements expressing solidarity with Taiwan. The G7+EU foreign ministers meeting statement specifically called out China’s “economic coercion”. Notably, international analysts were split in their assessments of how likely it was that Taiwan would be severely impacted by this measure.
Status
At time of writing, English language media reporting does not suggest that this case has yet been resolved. When the suspension was put in place, China’s Ministry of Commerce did not give any details as to how long it was intended to last.
Reference list
AlJazeera. 2022. “China restricts trade with Taiwan amid tensions over Pelosi trip.” August 3. AlJazeera. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/8/3/china-halts-sand-exports-to-taiwan-amid-tension-over-pelosi-trip
Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. 2022. “China halts sand exports, fruit and fish imports with Taiwan” Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. August 3. Available at: https://cast.asiapacific.ca/map/event/906
Embassy of the People’s Repubic of China in the United States of America. 2007. “Chinese mainland to resume sand exports to Taiwan(11/14/07).” Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United States of America. November 14. Available at: http://us.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng//zt/twwt/200711/t20071114_4913598.htm
Impiombato, D., Y. Lau and F. Hunter. 2022. “China’s escalating coercion of Taiwan holds lessons for the international community.” The ASPI Strategist. August 10. Available at: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/chinas-escalating-coercion-of-taiwan-holds-lessons-for-the-international-community/
Ives, M. 2022. “Mostly Bluster: Why China Went Easy on Taiwan’s Economy.” New York Times. August 12. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/12/business/china-taiwan-economy.html
Koh, J. and Y. Huang. n.d. “China’s Taiwan trade restrictions threaten shipping, construction, and semiconductor supply chain.” Everstream Analytics. Available at: https://www.everstream.ai/articles/taiwan-trade-restrictions/
Reuters. 2022. “Sanctions China has imposed on Taiwan over Pelosi visit.” Reuters. August 3. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/economic-sanctions-china-has-imposed-taiwan-over-pelosi-visit-2022-08-03/
The Paper. 2022. ‘Mainland China suspended the export of sands to Taiwan, causing severe damage to the building materials market of Taiwan’ [大陆暂停对台湾地区出口天然砂, 九成依赖大陆的岛内建材市场将受重创] 03 August 2022. Available at: https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_19288670.
U.S. Department of State. 2022. “G7 Foreign Ministers’ Statement on Preserving Peace and Stability Across the Taiwan Strait.” U.S. Department of State. August 3. Available at: