The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday said it would stop participating in interparty negotiations convened to resolve the political stalemate over the cross-strait service trade agreement because the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has repeatedly failed to respect the wishes of the public.
“We will stop attending the negotiations because the two sides remain oceans apart,” DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) told a press conference yesterday after the breakdown of the fourth round of interparty negotiations, convened by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) at his residence.
The negotiations were held to try to work out a solution to dealing with the agreement awaiting review by the legislature, hoping to put an end to the Sunflower student movement that has occupied the legislative floor since Tuesday last week.
The DPP has the same demands as the protesters, that the pact not be reviewed by the legislature until a legislative monitoring mechanism has been established, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
The KMT caucus insists that the mechanism and the review of the pact should be separate issues. It also insists that the review must be presided over by Wang and that the DPP agree not to filibuster the review process.
“What we have is the KMT playing a two-handed strategy as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) still refuses to answer the students’ demands directly,” Ker said.
While Wang has proposed initiating his own proposal to solve the conflict if the DPP and the KMT fail to agree, Ker said Wang’s proposal would be meaningless.
“The people are asking Ma for a positive response. The controversy will not end without Ma’s proposal,” Ker added.
Ker warned Ma that the trade pact controversy could become a “political nuclear bomb” that forces Ma’s early exit if the president fails to handle it carefully and refuses to listen to the public’s voice.
The student movement has not been losing steam, but gathering momentum since the bloody crackdown on the protesters at the Executive Yuan compound on Monday morning, Ker said.
“It shows the collective anxiety of Taiwanese toward the Ma administration’s pro-China position and its poor governance, and that the violation of democratic principles and constitutionalism has reached boiling point,” he said.
Wang said yesterday that he would keep working to bring the two sides together to find a consensus.
“At this critical moment for the country, all sides have to address the stalemate and work together to find a solution and regain the public’s trust,” Wang said.
Additional reporting by CNA
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
RSS