Without a mechanism to regulate cross-strait negotiation and safeguard local industries, the livelihoods of millions of Taiwanese will be at stake if the government pushes the cross-strait service trade agreement between Taiwan and China through the legislature, hundreds of protesters said yesterday.
“If [the pact] is not screened clause-by-clause, we’ll fight to the very end,” Chen Chih-ming (陳志銘), president of the Kaohsiung Federation of Labor Unions, told protesters, who braved low temperatures and wind to gather in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei.
The protesters demanded that several pieces of legislation be passed to ensure transparency and democratic principles before the pact is screened by the Legislative Yuan.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
They include a statute to regulate all agreements and treaties made between Taiwan and China; a bill to regulate incoming Chinese investment and workers; and a bill to institutionalize the impact assessment review of free trade.
Without such a safeguard mechanism, the jobs and wages of millions of local workers could suffer, particularly because neither local business sectors nor the legislature had been informed about the contents of the pact before it was signed in June, representatives who spoke at the rally said.
The potential negative impact of the deal has been a serious concern not only for workers, but also for students and youth rights advocates.
“The agreement could be summed up in two words: undemocratic and unfair,” said Chiu Yu-bin (邱毓斌), president of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.
The signing of the pact was “not democratic” because neither the public nor the legislature had been consulted. The pact would only benefit large corporations, he said.
“I would say that the KMT has been kidnapped by those large corporations and the signing of the pact has launched a new wave of class struggle between rich and poor,” Chiu added.
Aphrodite Hung (洪瑞璞), spokesperson of the Black Island Nation Youth Front (黑色島國青年聯盟), said it was unfair to have the future of millions of Taiwanese decided by only a handful of business tycoons and an administration that has been doing nothing but what Beijing wanted from it since 2008, when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office.
Although the KMT has withdrawn its original plan to forcibly pass the deal in an extra legislative session next month, the protesters remain suspicious, fearing that the party could launch an “ambush.”
KMT lawmakers refused to fill in a questionnaire prepared by the Democratic Front Against Cross-Strait Trade in Services Agreement, which asked every lawmaker to state his or her position on the protesters’ demands, alliance spokesperson Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said.
Only 44 of the 113 lawmakers filled in the questionnaire, with one coming from the People First Party, three from the Taiwan Solidarity Union and all 40 Democratic Progressive Party legislators, Lai said.
At a separate protest earlier, dozens of members of the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan gathered in front of the legislature at noon, saying that the opposition should cite Article 16 of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) and demand the termination of the pact.
Under Article 16 of the ECFA, Taiwan and China would have to hold negotiations within 30 days after a side gives written notice of its intention to terminate the agreement.
Should there be a lack of consensus, each side must wait 180 days before the ECFA is terminated.
“Since the service trade pact is part of the ECFA, we assume that this would be the most effective way to stop the agreement,” alliance spokesperson Chang Ming-yu (張銘祐) 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