A group of civic organizations yesterday began a series of protests against the opacity of the recently signed cross-strait service trade agreement, asking the government to scrap the agreement and renegotiate with China over the terms of the pact.
“President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government did not consult with any industries or the legislature before signing the agreement,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told the rally held in Taipei.
“Industries I spoke to all said they are worried about the negative impacts there may be as a result of the signed agreement, and yet Ma keeps saying that ‘certain political parties and media’ are exaggerating negative consequences of the service pact,” he said.
Photo: Lee Lee-fa, Taipei Times
As governing and opposition lawmakers have reached a consensus to review the cross-strait service trade agreement during an extraordinary legislative session slated to take place beginning on Tuesday, the DPP will insist that the legislature screen the pact item-by-item, he added.
National Taiwan University economics department chairwoman Jang Show-ling (鄭秀玲) said in a video shown at the rally that the Ma administration violated three principles in signing the cross-strait service trade agreement.
The signing lacked transparency throughout the process, it put commercial interests ahead of national interests by opening air, sea and land transportation and communication industries to China and the agreement is unequal, she said.
Saying the pact would only benefit big business and damage small and medium-sized enterprises and their workers in the service sector, Jang called for the government to renegotiate the pact with China.
Former Examination Yuan president Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文), one of the conveners of the series of protests which the groups plan to stage over the next seven days, voiced concerns that when Chinese businesses establish themselves in Taiwan, not only industry, but national security would be affected.
In addition to the rally yesterday, a protest organized by groups such as the Cross-Strait Agreement Watch, Taiwan Democracy Watch and the Taiwan Labor Front will take place in front of the Legislative Yuan tonight.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS