Thu, Oct 31, 2024 page2

• Groups warn on offshore islands ‘free-trade’ plan

  • By Chen Yu-fu and Jason Pan / Staff reporters
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  A proposal by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to set up “free-trade zones” on the outlying islands of Kinmen (金門) and Matsu (馬祖) is a test project to facilitate Chinese rule under its “one country, two systems” principle, Taiwan Economic Democracy Union (EDU) convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said yesterday, urging the public to be alert to the dangers of such a proposal.

  Members of EDU and Taiwan Citizen Front, as well as academics, held a news conference outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, as the legislature’s Economics Committee is today to discuss amendments to the Offshore Islands Development Act (離島建設條例) proposed by KMT legislators Jessica Chen (陳玉珍) of Kinmen and Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生) of Lienchiang County (Matsu).

  With the support of fellow KMT legislators, the proposed amendments, if approved, would allow the outlying islands to set up free-trade zones and special international zone for medical care in Kinmen and Matsu.

  

  Taiwan Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang speaks at a news conference in front of a Legislative Yuan building in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times

  “The KMT’s plan would pave the way for Taiwan to be placed under Beijing’s rule under its ‘one country, two systems’ principle,” Lai said. “It would be a political pilot test to pressure Taiwan to open up to free trade by allowing Chinese goods, workers and personnel to flood our frontline islands and eventually all of Taiwan.”

  In the so-called “pilot program for free-trade zone,” it would be open only to work and business for workers, manufactured goods, investment and companies from China and not any other country, he said.

  “The KMT’s plan is actually not to facilitate ‘free trade,’ but to permit entry and takeover by Chinese firms to serve as a demonstration of China’s ‘one country, two systems,’ which would begin eroding Taiwanese sovereignty,” Lai said.

  “It is outrageous, as we found out that the ‘free-trade zone’ would not be overseen by Taiwanese ministries or the legislature, but by the local governments of Kinmen and Lienchiang. This would be a contravention of constitutional articles on the definition of powers of the central and local governments. It is clearly the KMT’s plan to place the frontline islands under Chinese business and administrative control,” Lai said.

  Tsai Ming-fang (蔡明芳), an economics professor at National Central University, said that if the plan goes through, it would result in the decline and impoverishment of business and economic activities in Kinmen and Matsu.

  By opening the islands to cheaper goods and lower-cost labor from China, the trade and livelihoods of local residents would become dependent on China, leading to unemployment and a loss of competitiveness, he said.

  This in turn could force them to apply for work in China, thereby aiding Beijing in achieving its political aim of dominating Taiwan’s economy and facilitating its takeover of the two islands, Tsai said.
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