Echoing former Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) chairwoman Nita Ing’s (殷琪) remark that migration of industries was what “killed” the high-speed rail business, Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) yesterday said the government’s plan to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China would just make the situation worse.
“Ing said that migration of industries [to China] ‘killed domestic airlines and the high-speed rail,’ but I think it’s only the beginning,” Huang told a press conference. “The situation will only get worse as the government continues to open up to and signs an ECFA with China.”
Before stepping down as THSRC chairwoman, Ing said in an inteview with Common Wealth (天下雜誌) magazine that the migration of industries to China was a key reason why THSRC was NT$400 billion (US$12.3 billion) in debt. She said that more than 2 million people have moved to China to work in the past 12 years because of the government’s policy to open up to China, reducing the average daily number of passengers from an estimated 230,000 to 80,000.
Huang agreed with Ing and said that after signing an ECFA with China, Taiwan’s markets would further open up to China which would have a grave impact on low-skilled workers and low-threshold industries, as more people would leave for China and the dumping of cheap Chinese products would be more common.
“[The ECFA] will cause an employment and wealth crisis for the Taiwanese,” he said.
Huang added that when former president Lee Tung-hui (李登輝) was in power and applied a more restrained policy toward cross-strait economic exchanges, “the average growth rate was 6.5 percent.”
“Since the government started opening up to China economically in 2001, however, average economic growth has dropped to around 3.8 percent,” Huang said. “A year after President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] took office and enhanced cross-strait exchanges, the economy has contracted by minus 3.52 percent.”
He said that if the former president’s cross-strait policies had been continued, “the per capita average income would have doubled.”
Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Vice Chairman Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉), on the other hand, argued that Taiwan would face a dilemma of being marginalized from major economic entities in Asia if it failed to speed up negotiations on signing an ECFA with Beijing.
Kao made the remarks in Taipei yesterday while addressing a forum of China-based Taiwanese businesspeople.
Kao said Taiwan would soon lose its global competitiveness and face the crisis of being marginalized by Japan, South Korea, China and ASEAN if it did not develop a closer economic relationship with China.
“We must step up efforts to sign an ECFA with China before ASEAN including China, Japan and South Korea form a regional economic bloc,” Kao told the forum.
Kao admitted that the proposed pact was not 100 percent conducive to Taiwan, but he emphasized that its advantages outweighed its disadvantages, adding that a smaller economic entity usually benefits from economic integration with a bigger one.
The penetration of Taiwanese products in the Chinese market began to deteriorate three years ago, but Kao said there was much room for development in the service sector.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS