The preliminary legislative review of the controversial cross-strait service trade agreement scheduled for today was temporarily postponed and two more public hearings are to be held instead in response to continuing opposition from the public to the legislature ratifying the agreement.
Academics and representatives of civic groups apprehensive of opening up the nation’s service sector to Chinese investors continued to call for lawmakers to take citizens’ opinions into account through a deliberative democracy process before the agreement is reviewed in the legislature.
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union have voiced support for the demand that the impact on each industry covered by the trade agreement be discussed at a separate public hearing, with business owners and representatives of those employed in the sector invited to talk about their views before the legislative review begins.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) did not agree to the request.
Two separate public hearings were held yesterday by a joint committee led by the Internal Administration Committee, entrusted by the legislature’s plenary session to do a preliminary review of the agreement.
The preliminary review was scheduled for today, but the KMT agreed to postpone the meeting after it turned down a request by the DPP and the TSU that protesters rallying outside the legislature be allowed to be present at yesterday’s public hearing as observers.
A total of 28 representatives from academia, business associations and civic organizations were invited to present their views on the agreement, while Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦), Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森) and Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch (張家祝) were also present.
At the hall, which can accommodate hundreds of people, most of the seats were taken by legislative assistants and officials from various departments.
The government signed the agreement with China without consulting affected industries and the public, and now “you mobilized officials and legislative assistants to occupy the seats that were supposed to belong to the people,” DPP Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said.
KMT Legislator Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said that it was against the rules to allow people to attend the meeting unless they have applied to attend beforehand.
At the hearing, several representatives of groups opposing the agreement emphasized the need for lawmakers to listen to people’s opinions.
“We demand that the legislature hold a public hearing specifically for each industry and that all related information be made available before a public hearing is held,” Chung Yuan Christian University associate professor of financial law Hsu Wei-chun (徐偉群) said.
The legislature should enact a law to regulate how the government assesses the impact of trade agreements on the nation and to require the government to present what policy it will adopt for industries covered by a trade pact following its implementation so people can better predict how the liberalization will affect local industries, Hsu said.
Terry Chang (張天立), president of online bookstore TAAZE and founder of books.com.tw, said he doubted that officials involved in the negotiations have a basic understanding of the industries covered by the agreement.
“This is not a trivial thing. I call on officials to reconsider the agreement and politicians in both the blue and the green camps to put away partisanship to work together to protect the country’s publishing industry,” Chang said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS