The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it was confident that planned protests in Taichung City against talks between the government and China would be peaceful, but urged police not to provoke participants.
DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said Taiwanese were “rational and peaceful” by nature and it was unlikely any violence would occur unless police overstep their bounds and provoke protesters.
A 100,000-person-strong street demonstration initiated by the DPP is scheduled to take place tomorrow in Taichung to protest against the fourth round of cross-strait negotiations headed by Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his Chinese counterpart Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS).
This is Taichung City’s first opportunity to host the series of Chiang-Chen meetings since cross-strait talks resumed last year after a 13-year hiatus. The last meeting held in Taiwan occurred in November last year in Taipei when several people were injured during protests.
While the DPP blamed last year’s violence on the police and the government, the pan-blue camp accused Tsai of failing to control the crowd.
Tsai yesterday panned Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), who has already ordered hundreds of police to guard the city, saying that if the protests get out of hand, he did not rule out blocking off the city’s major intersections to ensure the safety of the Chinese delegation.
“Hu is already treating the protesters as if they are rioters. This erroneous assumption will only encourage and justify the police to brutalize protesters,” the chairperson said.
DPP Secretary-General Su Chia-chuan (蘇嘉全) is scheduled to meet the mayor today to explain the party’s stance, she said.
Tsai said that contrary to media reports, which have alleged that the protest would be aimed at Chen, the event was meant to send a message that Taiwanese were fed up with China’s arrogant attitude and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) blatant disrespect for the country’s democratic system, especially about his administration’s plan to forge an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with Beijing in the absence of a national consensus.
“So far the government has been unwilling to communicate with the public about what would be included in an ECFA. This shows the trade pact is nothing but a deal established by a small group of people behind closed doors without public consent based on their own self interest,” Tsai said.
She said Taiwan’s unemployment rate was on an upward trend and many indicators showed that signing a free trade pact with China would only worsen the situation, while at the same time adversely affecting Taiwan’s agricultural sector.
Earlier at the same press conference, a farmer from Yunlin County yesterday said garlic producers in his county were already suffering.
“It is unthinkable what will happen to our farmers, even my own family, if Taiwan opens its market to Chinese agricultural products,” he said, adding that the government must delay signing an ECFA until after a referendum is held.
In addition to meeting Chiang, Chen is expected to tour central Taiwan, including a trip to visit Typhoon Morakot victims in the area. However, Tsai said such a gesture was both “impolite and denigrating to Taiwan” because Chen is not a head of state and therefore he should not be treated as one.
Tsai said Chen’s itinerary should be simplified and that he should not enjoy any fanfare or preferential treatment from the government.
At least 10 other local civic groups have planned to stage their own protests next week. Tsai said the DPP has communicated with these organizations and urged them to avoid violence.
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