The draft cross-strait agreement oversight bill has been waiting in the legislature for a while; it must be passed before any cross-strait agreements can be signed. With the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative elections approaching, it would be reasonable that negotiations for the cross-strait trade in goods agreement, which does not conform with the oversight bill, be stopped and left to the next administration to handle.
However, the Chinese government and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration do not operate with reason. After Ma’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the government has been aggressively addressing the trade in goods agreement. Between Saturday and Monday last week, the two sides conducted the 12th round of talks for the trade in goods agreement in Taipei and they agreed to finalize the agreement in a 13th round next month. The aggression of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) shows that they have certain objectives in mind and have devised a scheme to achieve them.
First, they want a signed agreement to create a new “status quo” before the next administration takes office.
Second, since the trade in goods agreement would lower taxes for the flat panel, petrochemical, automotive and machinery industries, these industries would use the pro-China media to promote the necessity of the agreement. By pushing down share prices, inciting shareholder protests and organizing seminars on the poor performance of the industries with the attendance of businesspeople, government officials and academics, they want to pressure the next government and legislature to circumvent the bill and pass the agreement.
If the trade in goods agreement could be passed this way, the service trade agreement and the special regulations for free economic pilot zones could be given similar treatment.
Third, for Beijing, it is easy to reduce taxes for these industries. In return, China wants Taiwan to deregulate the hundreds of agricultural and machinery products that were not opened up to China when it joined the WTO. Since Taiwan and China are on the same latitude and Taiwan is much smaller than China, this would have a tremendous impact on Taiwan’s economy and society, giving China an upper hand to enforce the policies it has devised to control farmers, middle and low-income families, small and medium-sized enterprises and young people in central and southern Taiwan.
The CCP is trying to find avenues to influence communities, cities and the entire nation, and plant vote riggers at the polls so that in 2020 it would be able to win back Taiwan with the KMT’s assistance. Would it be successful? Yes, very likely.
The only protests against the latest round of talks were organized by the Taiwan Solidarity Union Youth League, the Radical Flank and the Economic Democracy Union. Although they speak for farmers and workers — both disadvantaged groups — they were few in number, while the general public and other opposition parties showed almost no interest, leaving them to fight a lonely battle.
The lack of a powerful Taiwan-centered third party counterbalancing the two major parties in the legislature, coupled with Beijing’s threats and pressure from cross-strait consortiums mean that there is an increasing possibility for compromise and flexibility in the handling of the trade in goods and service trade agreements. If that happens, the 2001 Economic Development Advisory Conference farce is bound to be repeated next year. That would not do the nation any good.
Huang Tien-lin is former president and chairman of First Commercial Bank and a former Presidential Office adviser.
Translated by Ethan Zhan
It is employment pass renewal season in Singapore, and the new regime is dominating the conversation at after-work cocktails on Fridays. From September, overseas employees on a work visa would need to fulfill the city-state’s new points-based system, and earn a minimum salary threshold to stay in their jobs. While this mirrors what happens in other countries, it risks turning foreign companies away, and could tarnish the nation’s image as a global business hub. The program was announced in 2022 in a bid to promote fair hiring practices. Points are awarded for how a candidate’s salary compares with local peers, along
China last month enacted legislation to punish —including with the death penalty — “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists.” The country’s leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), need to be reminded about what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has said and done in the past. They should think about whether those historical figures were also die-hard advocates of Taiwanese independence. The Taiwanese Communist Party was established in the Shanghai French Concession in April 1928, with a political charter that included the slogans “Long live the independence of the Taiwanese people” and “Establish a republic of Taiwan.” The CCP sent a representative, Peng
Japan and the Philippines on Monday signed a defense agreement that would facilitate joint drills between them. The pact was made “as both face an increasingly assertive China,” and is in line with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s “effort to forge security alliances to bolster the Philippine military’s limited ability to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea,” The Associated Press (AP) said. The pact also comes on the heels of comments by former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, who said at a forum on Tuesday last week that China’s recent aggression toward the Philippines in
The Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday announced that the military would hold its annual Han Kuang exercises from July 22 to 26. Military officers said the exercises would feature unscripted war games, and a decentralized command and control structure. This year’s exercises underline the recent reforms in Taiwan’s military as it transitions from a top-down command structure to one where autonomy is pushed down to the front lines to improve decisionmaking and adaptability. Militaries around the world have been observing and studying Russia’s war in Ukraine. They have seen that the Ukrainian military has been much quicker to adapt to