Some of the proposals made by Chinese negotiators during the latest round of negotiations on a planned trade pact between Taiwan and China could affect up to 632,000 jobs in the financial, communications, technology and media sectors, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) said yesterday.
Citing internal government reports obtained by the party, TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said that during last month’s cross-strait negotiations on a economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), China proposed that 700 items appear on a list of goods and services that would be subject to immediate tariff concessions or exemptions.
The “early harvest” list is expected to form the bulk of the controversial agreement, in contrast with other items that would be implemented gradually. While negotiations on the lists have already taken place, neither side has released details of the early harvest lists.
TSU sources said China’s early harvest list concentrated on the financial, communications, technology and media sectors. If passed, it could dramatically increase Chinese investment in these sensitive industries, they said.
The party said that if the industries came under Chinese control, Taiwan’s white-collar workers and professionals would be faced with an era of lower wages and benefits, and be forced to compete with their Chinese counterparts.
“This nation’s workers will be reduced to Chinese laborers,” Huang said. “After all … how can our workers compete when the Chinese companies bring their own management teams, whose wages will likely be significantly lower than those of Taiwanese?”
Statistics from the Council of Labor Affairs show that the four industries together employ about 632,000 workers, with professional and other high-wage jobs accounting for a significant percentage.
Huang’s comments came in the wake of media reports yesterday that said the government’s loosening of policies on Chinese workers could have serious repercussions for the nation’s white-collar workforce.
While the government has acknowledged relaxing regulations on Chinese workers, it emphasized that it would continue to bar workers in certain service professions from coming into Taiwan.
Some examples of Chinese professionals that would continue to be barred from entering the nation include doctors, accountants, lawyers, architects and teachers, the bureau said.
Despite the assurances, Huang said yesterday that a loophole in existing regulations meant that it did not prohibit Chinese professionals from coming to Taiwan and applying for licenses here.
The former head of the Mainland Affairs Council also criticized the government for refusing to release its own early harvest list, a move he called “irresponsible.”
Government officials have expressed optimism that an ECFA can be signed before June. While the government says that the agreement — one of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) cornerstone policies — is needed to increase Taiwan’s economic competitiveness, the opposition has expressed concern that it could lead to a loss of jobs due to cheaper competing goods from China.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China is mischaracterizing UN Resolution 2758 for its own interests by conflating it with its “one China” principle, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for China and Taiwan Mark Lambert said on Monday. Speaking at a seminar held by the German Marshall Fund, Lambert called for support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community at a time when China is increasingly misusing Resolution 2758. The resolution had a clear impact when it changed who occupied the China seat at the UN, Lambert said. “Today, however, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] increasingly mischaracterizes and misuses Resolution 2758 to serve its own interests,” Lambert said. “Beijing