The Chinese delegation to the just-concluded second round of talks on a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China headed home yesterday. China’s lead negotiator, Tang Wei (唐煒), declined to make any public comments prior to his departure.
Asked whether anything concrete had been achieved at the talks, Tang, head of the Department of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs under China’s Ministry of Commerce, only gave a polite “thank you all” in response.
To avoid pro-independence or anti-China protesters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the Chinese delegation arrived two hours before their flight was due to depart.
According to police authorities in Taoyuan, the Chinese delegation toured a tourist dairy farm in Yangmei Township (楊梅) yesterday morning before heading to the airport. For many of the Chinese negotiators this was reportedly their first visit to Taiwan.
The second round of ECFA talks began on Wednesday at Ta Shee Resort in Taoyuan County, and concluded at noon on Thursday, half a day earlier than originally planned.
At the end of the talks, Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) expressed optimism about the prospects for signing the trade pact with China in June as scheduled.
Lai said the significance of the just-concluded negotiations lay in ensuring that no sector will be unduly impacted by the ECFA deal. She also indicated that more effort would be made in future rounds of talks to show which sectors will benefit from the deal.
The talks give form to the government’s promise over the past year that the “early harvest” program — a list of items for which duties will be reduced or exempted immediately — will not include any agricultural items that Taiwan does not import from China at present. It will also not include industries that cater to conventional domestic demand and would therefore be sensitive to new inflows of Chinese goods, she said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
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Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
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