Amid growing public opposition to the proposed cross-strait trade in goods agreement, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said the government should draw up comprehensive compensatory measures before inking a deal with China.
Chu made the remarks during an interview with China TV yesterday morning, in which he criticized the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) handling of the controversial cross-strait service trade agreement signed in Shanghai in June 2013.
“When we reflect on the service trade agreement, it was marred by a lack of communication and the government’s ambiguous planning,” said Chu, who took over the KMT chairmanship from Ma in January.
Given the sensitive nature of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait signing a deal, Chu said if he had been in power, he would have handled the issue in a more discreet manner and laid down a full compensatory plan before signing the treaty.
Chu said the president should have also assessed the matter from a strategic point of view to determine whether to sign the service trade agreement or the trade in goods agreement first.
“The service trade agreement involves people, while the trade in goods treaty concerns money. Which do you think causes more emotions: People or money?” Chu asked.
The cross-strait service trade agreement has been stalled in the legislature since KMT Legislator Chang Ching-chung’s (張慶忠) move to rush it through a committee review in March last year prompted scores of students to occupy the Legislative Yuan in Taipei for almost 23 days — an event dubbed the Sunflower movement.
The 12th round of negotiations on the cross-strait trade in goods agreement, which concluded in Taipei on Monday, were dogged by protests saying that the deal would only benefit large corporations at the expense of farmers and small businesses.
The KMT chairman said if the nation were negotiating a deal with the Philippines or any other member of ASEAN, the impact and ideological opposition it would cause would be far less than an agreement being signed with China.
However, Taiwan must head toward economic openness if it wants a brighter future, Chu said.
“The process of opening up will undoubtedly be painful, but you cannot make an omelet without breaking some eggs,” Chu said. “That is why the government must prepare compensatory and antifraud mechanisms beforehand.”
Theaters and institutions in Taiwan have received 28 threatening e-mails, including bomb threats, since a documentary critical of China began being screened across the nation last month, the National Security Bureau said yesterday. The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, it said. State Organs (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities. From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said. Although the threats were not carried out,
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: China continues to build up its military capacity while regularly deploying jets and warships around Taiwan, with the latest balloon spotted on Sunday The US is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of a Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. They would be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, Kyodo reported late on Sunday, citing sources familiar with Japan-US relations. A US Marine Corps regiment that possesses High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — a light multiple rocket launcher — would be deployed along the Nansei Island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said. According to US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations,
As Taiwan celebrated its baseball team’s victory in the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Premier12 on Sunday, how politicians referred to the team in their congratulatory messages reflected the nation’s political divide. Taiwan, competing under the name Chinese Taipei (中華台北隊), made history with its first-ever Premier12 championship after beating Japan 4-0 at the Tokyo Dome. Right after the game, President William Lai (賴清德) congratulated the team via a post on his Facebook page. Besides the players, Lai also lauded the team’s coaching and medical staff, and the fans cheering for them in Tokyo or watching the live broadcast, saying that “every
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday confirmed that Chinese students visiting Taiwan at the invitation of the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation were almost all affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During yesterday’s meeting convened by the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) asked whether the visit was a way to spread China’s so-called “united front” rhetoric, to which MAC Deputy Ministry Shen You-chung (沈有忠) responded with the CCP comment. The MAC noticed that the Chinese individuals visiting Taiwan, including those in sports, education, or religion, have had increasingly impressive backgrounds, demonstrating that the
RSS