Taobao won't 'unify China': expert

The Chinese government on Wednesday officially addressed the recently popular online topic "Taobao to unify China," which refers to the increasingly lucrative cross-Straits e-commerce business.

"E-commerce has made it very convenient for consumers to purchase commodities across the Straits," said Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, during a regular briefing.

Ma added that a convenient shopping method like this is naturally popular among people from both sides of the Straits.

Ma's response came after heated online discussion about how China's leading e-commerce platform Taobao might "reunify China first" as when Taiwan consumers input their shipping address, they must select their region as Taiwan Province. This way, they may also benefit from free shipping.

Some Taiwanese Taobao users have said online that they were upset about this Taiwan Province registration, but others told the Global Times that they appreciate the site's prices and quality.

Jeno Liao, a 33-year-old therapist assistant in Taipei, began to shop on Taobao five years ago. "Compared to local online shops, Taobao is cheaper and faster," Liao told the Global Times, "the customer service is also much better."

Liao said that there is not as much discussion about "sovereignty" in real life as it appears online. "I have lots of friends using Taobao and I never heard a complaint about having to register as being from Taiwan Province," said Liao.

Lee Chia-ying, a foreign company employee in Taipei, finds goods from the Chinese mainland are of decent quality and reasonably priced. She spends NT$ 30,000 ($997) each year on Taobao.

"I'll keep using Taobao. Some of my friends talk about politics too much, I don't like it. It's just shopping, why bring politics in to it?" she said via e-mail.

Taobao saw 190 percent increase in sales from Taiwan on November 11 last year, a shopping promotion day, said Zhang Liming, a staff member of the PR department of Taobao.

The company set up a special team for the Taiwan market in July 2012. It had around 800,000 registered buyers by mid-2013, said Zhang.

Wang Jianmin, a research fellow with the Taiwan Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, prefers to look at the discussion as an "entertainment" of the public.

"It's just a funny saying to me, unrelated to the political progress of reunification. As for Taiwanese using Taobao, it's normal business," said Wang.

Wang attributed the upsets or disputes to economic anxiety caused by the fast development of China's e-commerce. "E-commerce in Taiwan started ahead but the mainland has leaped forward due to its bigger scale and lower costs."