The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday praised Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) for having “concretely responded” to protesting students’ demands to enact a law overseeing all cross-straits agreements before reviewing the controversial cross-strait service trade agreement.
Flanked by governing and opposition lawmakers, Wang visited the students, who have been occupying the legislative chamber since March 18 in protest against the government’s handling of the service trade pact, and announced he would not call a “consultative meeting” between legislative caucuses before the oversight law has been legislated.
“Over the 20 days, the DPP repeatedly called on President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to face the students and respond to their appeals to end the standoff. Unfortunately, Ma neglected the students and public voices that support the students,” DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told a press conference yesterday afternoon held at the party’s headquarters.
“I believe the latest development is the first step toward an all-satisfying solution” to the current impasse at the legislature, where students protesting the service trade agreement are facing mounting pressure to return the main chamber to lawmakers.
Students have not just been protesting the “black-box procedures” for negotiating the pact with China and its contents, but also highlighting “serious trouble” in the country’s constitutional democracy, in that it no longer serves as a tool to solve problems when the popularly elected government has been adamant in pushing ahead a policy in violation of the majority of the public’s opinion, Su said.
As the majority view of the public has been “trampled upon” repeatedly, injustices against the younger generation have not been addressed and social justice remains illusive, as improvements in cross-strait ties have churned out benefits for only a few, Su added.
He lauded the students for “having done a good job” at this juncture in history.
Su added that the DPP hopes different versions of draft will be discussed and reviewed in the legislature and that during the review process, lawmakers will be able to conduct dialogues with students and respond to their appeals as well as accept voices from the public, and thereby produce a bill that could successfully monitor cross-strait exchanges.
Separately yesterday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) said in an e-mailed statement that he admires Wang’s wisdom and feels sympathy for the students.
Gou, whose company assembles Apple Inc’s iPhones at factories in China, called on the students and all political parties to learn to let go of their differences so Taiwan can move forward.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
RSS