A group of civic organizations yesterday began a series of protests against the opacity of the recently signed cross-strait service trade agreement, asking the government to scrap the agreement and renegotiate with China over the terms of the pact.
“President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government did not consult with any industries or the legislature before signing the agreement,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told the rally held in Taipei.
“Industries I spoke to all said they are worried about the negative impacts there may be as a result of the signed agreement, and yet Ma keeps saying that ‘certain political parties and media’ are exaggerating negative consequences of the service pact,” he said.
Photo: Lee Lee-fa, Taipei Times
As governing and opposition lawmakers have reached a consensus to review the cross-strait service trade agreement during an extraordinary legislative session slated to take place beginning on Tuesday, the DPP will insist that the legislature screen the pact item-by-item, he added.
National Taiwan University economics department chairwoman Jang Show-ling (鄭秀玲) said in a video shown at the rally that the Ma administration violated three principles in signing the cross-strait service trade agreement.
The signing lacked transparency throughout the process, it put commercial interests ahead of national interests by opening air, sea and land transportation and communication industries to China and the agreement is unequal, she said.
Saying the pact would only benefit big business and damage small and medium-sized enterprises and their workers in the service sector, Jang called for the government to renegotiate the pact with China.
Former Examination Yuan president Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文), one of the conveners of the series of protests which the groups plan to stage over the next seven days, voiced concerns that when Chinese businesses establish themselves in Taiwan, not only industry, but national security would be affected.
In addition to the rally yesterday, a protest organized by groups such as the Cross-Strait Agreement Watch, Taiwan Democracy Watch and the Taiwan Labor Front will take place in front of the Legislative Yuan tonight.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS