A day of action against a landmark trade deal with China will take place across Taipei City today, as more than 100,000 protesters — including former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) — are expected to gather and demand the government first hold a public referendum on the issue.
Opposition parties that are against the controversial agreement are vowing to send a “strong message” to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration that an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) would tie Taiwan’s economy closer to its communist neighbor.
The rally comes two days after the fifth round of cross-strait negotiations finished in Taipei on Thursday, with both sides agreeing to a list of goods and services subject to immediate tariff reductions.
The list appears to favor the interests of Taiwanese exporters, as China will lower tariffs for 539 Taiwanese items, accounting for US$13.8 billion — about 16 percent in annual trade. At the same time, Taiwan’s market will open up to 267 items from China, with an estimated value of US$2.86 billion, about 10.5 percent of Taiwan-bound exports.
The deal is set to be signed on Tuesday in the Chinese city of Chongqing, a move that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) says could pave the way for much closer and potentially dangerous political relations between the two sides.
“By agreeing to these benefits from China, Taiwan is playing straight into China’s hands. Of course there are political considerations behind the deal. [Taiwan] is being politically manipulated,” DPP spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said yesterday.
According to the DPP, the release of the “early harvest” tariff reduction list on Thursday, will galvanize representatives from Taiwan’s more fragile industries to take part in the rally because of heightened concerns about the impact of an influx of cheaper competing goods from China.
Despite a pledge by Ma to distribute NT$95 billion (US$3 billion) over 10 years in aid for industries potentially hard-hit by the agreement, Chou Ching-yuan (周清源), head of the Yunlin Towel Industrial Technology Development Association, said the money could not solve the root of the problem.
“An ECFA will limit us to China’s market and we will be unable to compete there because of their lower labor costs,” Chou said. “We want to sell made-in-Taiwan products around the whole world, not just in China.”
Labor unions, agricultural organizations and youth groups from around the country are also expected to descend on Taipei City today to join all five of the DPP’s mayoral candidates for the year-end special municipality elections in the two 3.5km marches around the city.
The rallies will begin at Taipei City’s Ding-Hao plaza and Wanhua Station, later congregating at Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office at 5pm, where a number of DPP politicians are expected to make speeches.
Along with former president Lee, former premiers Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃) are to make speeches at Wanhua Station after 3:30pm. Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former presidential advisor Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) will speak at Ding-Hao Plaza at the same time.
The Ding-Hao plaza march, which begins at 4pm, will be led by DPP’s contender for Taipei City mayor, former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), starting from Zhongxiao E Road and then moving to Linsen S Road and Renai Road Section 1.
DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who is running for Sinbei mayor, will lead the Wanhua Station march, also beginning at 4pm, from Monga Boulevard and moving on to Heping W Road Sec. 2, Fuzhou Street, Roosevelt Road Sec. 1 and Zhongshan S Road.
Taipei City Police said traffic at the venues will become pedestrian-only starting from 2pm. In addition, roads near the protest route will be restricted from 4pm. Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office will become a restricted zone starting this morning at 6am.
While more than 1,000 police officers are set to be deployed along the route, the DPP has also vowed to bring their own security guards and step up patrols over fears that the rally could be disrupted by a number of KMT politicians.
The DPP expects numbers at the protest rally to exceed 100,000, joined by supporters of the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and pro-independence groups. Upwards of 300 buses are expected to arrive in Taipei City from southern Taiwan, the officials said.
While saying that the public response to the protest has so far been enthusiastic, DPP officials added that the final turnout would depend on the weather conditions at the time. The Central Weather Bureau forecast a 70 percent chance of rain, as of press time yesterday.
The protest is expected to finish by 7pm.
Meanwhile, at a separate setting yesterday, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said that given the DPP’s opposition to the ECFA, DPP’s nominees for November’s special municipal elections should promise publicly to exclude DPP-governed cities and counties from the tariff breaks to be included in the ECFA.
At a press conference held by the caucus, KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said the nominees should also pledge not to allow produce from DPP-governed cities and counties to be exported to China or the DPP’s opposition to the ECFA would be nothing but manipulation of a “pseudo-issue.”
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said he did not understand the rationale behind the DPP’s rally, adding that even if 100,000 people join the rally, the voice of these people cannot overwhelm the “mainstream opinion” of the nation’s 23 million people.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS