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.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
RSS