Denouncing the government for only giving details of the cross-strait service trade agreement after it had been signed, a group of social care organizations yesterday urged President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration to halt the proposed opening of the home care industry to Chinese investors because the agreement is unequal.
According to the group, under the terms in the pact signed on June 21, the entire home care industry in Taiwan will be opened to Chinese companies, but Taiwanese firms will only be able to make investments in two Chinese provinces.
Under the pact, Taiwan will permit service providers from China to set up, via joint ventures, small-scale organizations for the care and social welfare of the elderly and people with disabilities, and there will be no governmental control over ventures in which the Chinese capital investment is 50 percent or less.
China will allow Taiwanese care providers to invest, through sole proprietorships of private organizations of a non-business company nature, in elderly care and nursing home services and welfare services for people with disabilities, it said. However, they are restricted to ventures in Fujian and Guangdong provinces.
Representatives from a coalition made up of the Taiwan Association of Senior Citizen’s Institution (TASCI), the Federation for the Welfare of the Elderly (FWE), the League of Welfare Organization for the Disabled and the Eden Social Welfare Foundation, among others, said they see three main “inequalities” in the pact. It violates Taiwan’s laws, places restrictions on modes of operation and places restrictions on geographic regions of operation.
The groups said they are worried that once the pact takes effect, social care services for the elderly and the disabled would be commercialized, its products merchandized, and moved away from the service-providers of social networks.
“Elderly people are not merchandise,” TASCI chairperson Chen Liao Mei-fang (陳廖梅芳) said.
“They worked hard through their lives for their family and they deserve good care in their old age. For this service sector, a large number of care workers are needed. It must not open up to become a commercial enterprise,” Chen said.
FWE secretary-general Wu Yu-chin (吳玉琴) said that at present, the law stipulates that only non-profit organizations can operate nursing homes and care services for the elderly and people with disabilities in Taiwan.
“Why is the government now opening up for Chinese businesses to make profits in this sector?” she said. “Even more questionable is that our government is allowing Chinese companies coming to Taiwan to operate for profit, but China is restricting Taiwanese proprietors operating for profit in China.”
Hsu Chun-chiang (許君強), deputy administration director at the Chao An Nursing Home Center in Taipei, said that while the pact is an incentive for non-profit Taiwanese organizations to operate social care services in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, he knows what China’s “real intention” is.
“It wants Taiwan’s ‘know-how’ and our professionals. However, it will not let us have the decisionmaking power and will not allow us to make profits there,” Hsu said.
Under Chinese law, the chairperson of a company, a company’s legal representatives and others, such as the founder and owner of a vocational school, must be Chinese citizens.
Another FWE official said that non-profit organizations have to use all their leftover funds to improve the quality of care and facility services, and cannot allocate the money to individuals.
“However, businesspeople are profit-oriented. They generate revenue by raising charges, collecting additional fees and reducing the number of workers, or use chain franchise investment and other ways, possibly illegal, to trim operating costs and eliminate competition,” the official said.
“This will impact on the rights of the 80,000 people currently under institutional care in Taiwan. The wages of 24,000 institutional care service workers will be driven down,” he said.
‘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 magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
RSS