Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) arrived in Taipei yesterday to begin negotiations on a cross-strait investment protection agreement, amid protests by pro-independence activists concerned that the pact could damage Taiwanese sovereignty.
The chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) is on a three-day visit to hold talks with his Taiwanese counterpart, Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤). The two are expected to sign the investment protection pact today at the Grand Hotel.
Hundreds of police have been deployed around the Grand Hotel and its vicinity, and barricades have been put up in front of all entrances to the hotel to keep out protesters. The control area was expanded to 10km2, with police cars patrolling roads leading up to the hotel, including Zhongshan N Road, Beian Road and Xinsheng N Road.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The Grand Hotel also limited its shuttle bus service at the MRT Yuan-shan Station to hotel guests who have already made reservations, cross-strait negotiation staff and media personnel covering Chen’s three-day visit. Hotel staff were sent to screen passengers at the bus stop.
A hotel employee, who wished not to be named, said the hotel had adopted temporary transportation controls in coordination with the police’s security measures.
“Some protesters had sneaked into the hotel and pretended they were hotel guests, and so the police asked the hotel to make sure that only hotel guests and related personnel enter the hotel this time,” she said.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
A small group of independence advocates clashed with police yesterday morning when they tried to enter the hotel. They were later dispersed by the police.
Chen arrived at the hotel at about 1pm, an hour behind schedule due to a flight delay. The organizers canceled the welcome ceremony at the hotel, as Chen and Chiang headed to Taipei Zoo and the Maokong Gondola for an afternoon tour.
Meeting with the press before Chen’s arrival, Chiang said the investment protection agreement would establish a platform for investors from both sides of the Taiwan Strait to solve investment disputes in a systematic way and make such investments more transparent.
The pact will set up a mechanism to solve disputes involving G2G (government-to-government), P2P (private-to-private) and P2G (private-to-government), and help protect the rights of Taiwanese businesses in China.
The government has also promised that the agreement would not pave the way for the entry of more Chinese investment and capital.
Chen later issued a statement saying that both the investment protection agreement and the planned customs cooperation agreement were crucial to follow-up negotiations on the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
At the Chiang-Chen meeting, the two envoys will determine the agenda in the next round of cross-strait talks. The pair said they would focus on negotiations on trade in goods and services, as well as setting up a dispute-solving mechanism under the ECFA.
“The two sides are still negotiating issues including trade in services and trade in goods, and we should complete the negotiations on the trade in service, which is less complicated than issues involving trade in goods,” Chiang said.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS