The failure to ink an agreement on avoiding double taxation during cross-strait negotiations will not affect the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), an official from China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) said yesterday.
Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his ARATS counterpart Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) decided at a meeting yesterday morning that the next round of cross-strait negotiations will address the signing of an ECFA and the protection of intellectual property rights.
ARATS Deputy Chairman Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中) yesterday played down the effect of the breakdown of the negotiations on double taxation.
Zheng dismissed speculation in the media that opposition from Taiwanese businessmen worried about the leaking of their tax information and disagreements on sovereignty and authority over taxation were the factors behind the negotiation breakdown.
“[Signing only three agreements] shows that the two sides are being practical and open about the problems we encountered during the meeting” Zheng told a press conference at the Windsor Hotel after the meeting.
“There were no political factors [behind the negotiation breakdown] and it will not affect the signing of an ECFA,” he said.
Zheng said it was “normal” for negotiations to break down on complicated issues, adding that placing an issue on the agenda did not guarantee the signing of an agreement.
The two sides will continue negotiating the issue and seek to sign an agreement as soon as possible, he said.
Zheng declined to give a timetable on the signing of an ECFA, but said experts from the two sides would begin negotiations as soon as possible, adding that China would take the capability of Taiwan’s market and Taiwanese acceptance into consideration during the negotiation process.
“The signing of the ECFA is a simple economic issue and we will try our best to maximize the interests and minimize the price both sides have to pay,” he said.
The fifth round of cross-strait negotiations will be held next year in China.
In response to media inquiry about President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) suggestion that the SEF find a way to include the opinions of opposition parties in the cross-strait negotiations, Zheng said ARATS would welcome any Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members to have a dialogue with China “as long as they do not engage in Taiwan independence activities.”
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
A man in Tainan has been cleared on charges of public insult after giving the middle finger during a road rage incident, as judges deemed the gesture was made “briefly to express negative feelings.” In last week’s ruling at the High Court’s Tainan branch, judges acquitted a driver, surnamed Cheng (程), for an incident along Tainan’s Nanmen Road in September 2023, when Cheng had spotted a place to park his car in an adjacent lane. Cheng slowed down his vehicle to go into reverse, to back into the parking spot, but the car behind followed too closely, as its driver thought Cheng
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
President William Lai (賴清德) should protect Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), and stop supporting domestic strife and discord, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrote on Facebook yesterday. US President Donald Trump and TSMC on Monday jointly announced that the company would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next few years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US. The TSMC plans have promoted concern in Taiwan that it would effectively lead to the chipmaking giant becoming Americanized. The Lai administration lacks tangible policies to address concerns that Taiwan might follow in Ukraine’s footsteps, Ma wrote. Instead, it seems to think it could
RSS