Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday criticized the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) for listing information on the disadvantages of the cross-strait service trade agreement as classified and releasing only information it considers favorable to the agreement.
Although President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has repeatedly said that approving the service trade agreement will have more advantages than disadvantages for Taiwanese businesses, DPP lawmakers said the government seems to be hiding certain information that may show the agreement in a disadvantageous light.
“In 2011, before the agreement was signed, the government commissioned the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research to conduct research on the pros and cons of the agreement. The results of that research show that the agreement may lead to the loss of key technologies, stronger competition from China and loss of business ownership,” DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said during a question-and-answer session at a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
“That information has been listed as classified and has been hidden from the public,” Tuan said.
In addition, an assessment report on the pact submitted by the National Security Bureau (NSB) concluded that opening the telecommunications industry to China may threaten Taiwan’s national security, but that report has been classified, the lawmaker said.
Tuan also accused the council of hiding poll results that showed 62.9 percent of respondents supported a call by activists who occupied the Legislative Yuan from March 18 to April 12 for the agreement to be renegotiated, and only 23 percent were opposed to it.
“I could understand if you decide to hide information about something advantageous to us during negotiations for the trade pact, but why are you trying to hide from the public what is bad for us?” Tuan said.
“It is also questionable why you are only releasing poll results that are favorable to the government’s stance,” Tuan said.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) asked similar questions.
“I could understand that you may want to hide some information during talks on the trade pact, but it does not make sense that it is still classified now that the pact has been signed,” Lee said.
Responding to the questions, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that the classified information was to be used for reference only within the government.
“We never intended to release the information to the public,” he said.
Wang also said that there was much more undisclosed information showing advantages of the service trade agreement than showing the disadvantages, “but since this data is also for internal reference, we have not released that information either.”
Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Cho Shih-chao (卓士昭) said that research produced by academics is only used for internal reference for decisionmaking.
“Academic research is not the only reference used; we also have to talk with business leaders before making a final decision,” the deputy minister said.
However, neither official explained why some poll numbers have been released to the public, while others were not.
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
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
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
RSS