Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) yesterday engaged in a heated debate with members of the public who criticized the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with Beijing.
Addressing members of the Taipei West chapter of the Rotary Club, Lai said Taiwan would suffer economic “discrimination” if it did not sign an ECFA with Beijing.
Without an ECFA, Lai said, Taiwanese products exported to China would be taxed between 6 percent and 11 percent more than those from ASEAN countries.
She said the government would map out measures to safeguard the interests of local businesses.
There are also stratagems in place under the WTO framework, she said, adding that it was up to the government to implement them.
A club member, Alan Lin (林瓊瀛), questioned the government’s movement toward signing an ECFA, saying it seemed the government had made up its mind before even carrying out an assessment of the potential impact.
“It is like telling us unification with Beijing is the only choice and then we can talk about details later,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
In response, Lai said the council would continue to communicate with the public, the legislature and Beijing, adding that she understood there was much room for improvement in that regard.
Another club member, Vincent Huang (黃政枝), said that while Lai mentioned peace and prosperity in her speech, she should tell Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) about their importance.
In response, Lai said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Liu Chao-shuan (劉兆玄) had repeatedly addressed the issue of China’s military threat and demanded that Beijing remove its missiles targeted at Taiwan before both sides could negotiate a peace deal.
China must also understand that Taiwanese wanted to have a friendly neighbor and that military hostility would only hurt the feelings of Taiwanese, she said.
Huang also asked Lai to prove that opening the economy further to China would be beneficial.
Lai said Taiwan became a tiger economy in the 1980s and 1990s, but the world had since changed. As China is rising to become an economic powerhouse, Taiwan must realize this and adjust its policies.
Visibly unsatisfied with Lai’s answer, Huang asked Lai to explain how sovereignty was not sacrificed in cross-strait talks.
Lai said the two sides had entered a new stage of “mutual non-denial” and that this was equivalent to being “mutually not subordinate” to each other.
Lai said cross-strait talks were now attended by government officials, which proved the government’s existence.
The debate was cut short by the host because of time constraints.
A club member complained that Lai should not have been invited to the event because she was a politician. Another member said that since Lai worked for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration, her only job was to promote KMT policies.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS