The Chinese government’s plan to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with Taiwan is aimed not just at bolstering cross-strait commerce, but at stifling the Taiwanese independence movement, a former US official said in Taipei on Friday.
Susan Shirk, former deputy assistant secretary of state during the administration of former US president Bill Clinton, made the remarks when asked about President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) eagerness to sign an ECFA.
Under Ma, the government has proposed signing an ECFA with China, saying that it is urgently needed for Taiwan because a free-trade agreement between China and ASEAN will take effect next year, which would further marginalize Taiwan and cripple its trade-dependent economy.
PHOTO: CNA
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), however, has warned that the agreement would jeopardize Taiwan’s sovereignty, make it too economically dependent on China and lead to an influx of Chinese capital and goods.
At the press event on Friday, Shirk said that she believed increasing trade across the Taiwan Strait could greatly benefit Taiwan, but added that Taiwan should never underestimate the risk and urged the nation to further investigate Beijing’s motives behind the ECFA.
Taiwan has an “efficient government” with regular, democratic elections, she said. Therefore, if the public is worried that China might eventually absorb Taiwan’s economy, the people should express their concern with their ballots.
Shirk did not elaborate whether she meant the issue should be put to a referendum.
In her book titled China: The Fragile Superpower, Shirk wrote about the disparity of wealth in China and the Chinese public’s increased desire for democracy as the economy booms.
Shirk on Friday said that as the international community witnesses the rise of Beijing, it is important to be mindful of China’s “fragile interior,” which would make Chinese authorities more stringent and harder to predict.
To quell any suspicion or worries from the international community, China’s diplomacy could be described as more flexible, she said. But despite the changes, China still has many problems.
In related news, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) urged the public to sign a petition asking the government to hold a referendum on the ECFA issue during a visit to Kaohsiung City yesterday.
Tsai said her party estimated that the proposed economic treaty would affect around 4 million people, especially laborers and farmers in central and south Taiwan.
“The public must stand up and say no to Ma, who is following China and moving toward unification,” she said.
The DPP has said it plans to collect 100,000 signatures by the end of next month in the first stage of its plan to call a referendum.
Tsai said that the party hopes to collect at least 6,600 signatures in Kaohsiung City.
The Referendum Act (公投法) stipulates that the signatures of 0.5 percent of eligible voters — approximately 80,000 — must be collected to apply for a referendum.
In the second stage, 5 percent of eligible voters — approximately 800,000 — must sign the petition before the Referendum Review Committee will sanction the proposed referendum.
Ma has voiced his opposition to a referendum on the ECFA issue, saying that the proposed agreement was not a political issue.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS