Panelists attending a forum yesterday on a Closer Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with China said it could jeopardize Taiwan’s economy and sovereignty if Taiwan does sign an agreement.
Hong Kong and China inked a CEPA in June 2003, opening up a huge market for Hong Kong goods and services and effectively improving Hong Kong’s economy. On Jan. 1 the following year, Macau signed a CEPA with China to receive similar trade benefits.
Chairman of the pro-independence Taiwan Thinktank Chen Po-chih (陳博志) said that if Taiwan signs the CEPA, it would bolster China’s scheme to link Taiwan with Hong Kong and Macau as part of Chinese territory, adding that the matter should be decided by voters in Taiwan by putting it to a referendum.
“What China is doing is trying to secure political power through the support of the business community and speed up reunification by economic means,” he said.
Chen said that an economic agreement like a CEPA would not only compromise Taiwan’s economic strength but would also eventually jeopardize the country’s sovereignty because “when Taiwan becomes more and more dependent on China, Beijing can use the economy for political coercion.”
Echoing Chen’s opinion, Taiwan Labor Front president Ngou Giok-siong (吳玉祥) told the forum hosted by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Policy Committee that the Taiwan government should take Hong Kong’s example as a warning, “as China is always the biggest winner in the game.”
Describing Hong Kong’s economy after signing a CEPA with China as a “bubble economy,” he said the Taiwanese government should hold public discussions on whether to sign a major agreement with China or hold a referendum on the issue.
“If the government just goes ahead without considering the consequences, Taiwan will end up like another Hong Kong,” he said.
In response to DPP lawmakers’ questions, Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said on Thursday that the legislature would not sign an agreement with China.
But Ngou said he still harbored concerns, saying that if the CEPA were signed, a large number of Taiwanese labors would be unemployed after Chinese laborers and cheap products entered the country.
DPP Legislator Twu Shiing-jer (??, another panelist at the forum, said Chinese “black hearted” food could easily enter Taiwan, jeopardizing the nation’s food safety network.
Twu added that after Hong Kong signed a CEPA with China, Hong Kong had to loosen inspections of domestic fowl imported from China. As a result, this contributed to a breakout of bird flu in Hong Kong in June 2003, he said.
He said that there were substantial differences between Taiwan and China in terms of the quality of food standards, medical services and public health, as well as differences in the way people think and do business, saying that a CEPA “is not what Taiwan needs.
“Taiwanese are not Chinese; Taiwan does not belong to China and Taiwan is better than China,” Twu said.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,