Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) reiterated yesterday that human rights protection and implementation should play a crucial role in the cross-strait talks on an investment protection agreement.
“The government should make sure that the pact is not another empty agreement,” Su said after the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting.
The majority of the 16 agreements signed in the past four years were not implemented, which makes Beijing’s determination to enforce the clauses on personal safety questionable, Su said.
The DPP first proposed signing a cross-strait investment protection agreement in 1992, because personal safety and basic human rights of Taiwanese in China were not protected, Su said.
“We still insist today that personal safety, including detention notifications within 24 hours, visiting rights for families, rights to hire lawyers and to have a lawyer present during questioning should be prioritized,” he said.
The government should also prioritize the institutionalization of Chinese investment in Taiwan, Su said, because Beijing has been strategically deploying its sovereignty wealth funds and investments from state-run companies worldwide.
“These investments entail a risk to national security for Taiwan if Chinese invest in sensitive industries,” he said.
The DPP has listed regulations institutionalizing Chinese investment inflows as a priority item on the legislative agenda in the next session, Su said.
The party’s Central Standing Committee yesterday also reached a resolution on the case of Bruce Chung (鍾鼎邦), a Taiwanese businessman and Falun Gong practitioner who has been detained in China since June 18, demanding that the government raise the issue with Chinese officials in today’s negotiations and pledging to support rescue efforts.
Separately yesterday, former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to speak out about Chung’s detention and Beijing’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering to remove Republic of China flags from an Olympics promotional event in London.
“A government that only appeases China or asks for favors from China will never win Beijing’s respect nor reassure Taiwanese,” she said in a press release.
Tsai, who is known as a tough negotiator and an international trade expert, questioned the substance of the proposed cross-strait investment protection and promotion agreement.
Tsai said Ma needs to explain why Taiwan and China could not solve trade disputes in an international arbitration mechanism despite the fact that both are WTO members.
The government should explain how person-to-person disputes would be arbitrated in a third country before China amends its domestic law and how person-to-government dispute settlement would be implemented and legally binding without an international arbitration mechanism, she said.
Tsai also questioned why a clause demanding that China notify Taiwan’s government and the families of Taiwanese who have been detained could not be written into the agreement and why the clause could not cover all Taiwanese people.
The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) has failed to play a neutral role in the eight rounds of negotiations thus far, she said, adding that SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) had a conflict of interests and was overly influenced by his role as deputy chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
No institution and mechanism in Taiwan has the authority to monitor the semi-governmental SEF, which is alleged to be involved in cross-strait lobbying and profiteering, and that is why it needs a complete reform, Tsai said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS