The pan-green camp yesterday criticized Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠) for his insistence on placing the controversial cross-strait service trade agreement on the legislative agenda on Thursday, saying that Chang’s plan would be a violation of party negotiations.
Despite negotiations convened by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) last week that reached a consensus that the screening of the pact would not take place before the final public hearings are held on March 10, Chang, joint convener of the Internal Administration Committee, expressed his intention to deal with the agreement this week.
“If Chang places the pact on the agenda, it would be a breach of party negotiations and I guarantee you an all-out war will break out in the legislature. The passage of the central government budget and the government reform legislation would be out of the question,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus secretary-general Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) told a press conference.
Gao said he suspected that Chang’s move either came from pressure applied by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) or by the Chinese Communist Party.
“I’m wondering whether the KMT wants to make the passage of the agreement a gift for the upcoming meeting between Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍). We won’t let that happen,” Gao added.
Wang Yu-chi and Zhang are scheduled to meet sometime after the Lunar New Year.
DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) had another theory, saying that Ma was looking to push through the agreement in an effort to embarrass Wang Jin-pyng after his failure to remove the legislative speaker in the so-called “September strife” political crisis.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) also voiced strong opposition to Chang’s plan, warning that the party would do anything, including bloodshed, to prevent the pact from being screened this week.
TSU caucus whip Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) echoed Huang Wei-cher’s concerns about pressure from Beijing.
“It’s particularly intriguing to us why Chang would risk violating a party consensus and go up against strong public opposition on his own. I suspect that tremendous pressure from Ma and Beijing is behind it,” Hsu said.
The TSU said that it would boycott the remaining legislative session if Chang insists on trying to push through the deal.
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
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS