President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has mishandled cross-strait relations and the government should respect Taiwan’s sovereignty, safeguard the interests of its people and uphold the democratic process, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
While the DPP has always supported fair and reciprocal cross-strait economic activities, the public, the opposition and most Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politicians were not informed of the contents of a service trade agreement set to be signed today, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said.
“It is unbelievable that in a democratic country, only a handful of high-ranking government officials know what the agreement entails. It was also unbelievable that the sectors to be included on the liberalization list and what impact the agreement could have on those sectors, their employees and Taiwan’s economy remain unknown,” Su said.
PHOTO: Sam Yeh, AFP
He said the pact should not be signed before the government submits an impact assessment report.
Su also criticized the KMT for advocating a “one China” structure to echo Beijing’s “one China” framework without going through a democratic process, saying that the initiative has stripped the Taiwanese of their right to determine their own future.
“We demand that Ma explain the matter to the public clearly, without ambiguity or evasion,” Su said.
DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said the party condemns the opaque nature of the service trade agreement.
“Taiwanese businesses and workers are entitled to be informed of the details of the pact, which is a follow-up to the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement [ECFA], and may affect their livelihoods. The negotiations should also be monitored by the legislature,” Lin said.
Citing a recent public opinion poll conducted by the DPP’s polling center, Lin said 68.4 percent of respondents said the Ma administration has failed to meet its stated goals three years after the ECFA was signed and only 9.9 percent thought that the goals have been met.
The poll, conducted on June 10 and June 11, collected 989 valid samples and had a margin of error of 3.18 percentage points.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said China has refused to liberalize the sector related to intellectual property rights, which is Taiwan’s most competitive service sector, while for the other four sectors — transportation, travel, insurance and finance — in which Taiwan enjoys advantages that are scheduled to be liberalized, Beijing has set up trade barriers.
“Beijing only wanted to absorb Taiwan’s labor, investments and know-how in those sectors,” Lee said.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said the agreement scheduled to be signed today is a ploy by the Ma administration to legalize the entry of Chinese workers to Taiwan.
The new pact would affect more than 4.7 million employees in Taiwan, he said.
The ECFA did not substantially benefit Taiwan, as the administration claims, and the government’s eagerness to open the service sector to Chinese investors ignores the common worker in Taiwan and panders to the Chinese, Huang said.
“Opening the market to foreign investment is an opportunity to increase job opportunities, but opening up the service trade will only take away jobs from Taiwanese and harm Taiwanese businesses,” Huang said.
Voicing doubts about the quality of the Chinese service sector, Huang said Taiwan’s service quality outranked China’s by a fair margin.
“It doesn’t matter which area of the service sector — hair salons and cosmetics, tourism or dining — once it is opened to cheap Chinese labor it will take away job opportunities from Taiwanese,” Huang said, adding that the opening would fuel a vicious cycle of cost-cutting.
Additional reporting by Chen Ching-min and Tseng Wei-chen
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
RSS