Panelists attending a forum on cross-strait affairs yesterday said the recently signed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) has advanced the timetable for cross-strait political negotiations.
Following the ECFA signing, Taiwan effectively left the economic orbit of the US and entered that of China. Strategically, Taiwan has been Finlandized, and its international status is now similar to that of Hong Kong and Macau, said Lai I-chung (賴怡忠), an executive board member of the pro-localization Taiwan Thinktank.
Lai told the think tank-hosted forum that 2012 would be a key year because that is when President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) four-year term comes to an end and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) has said he would stand down. That will inevitably create pressure for the two sides to hold political talks and set a fixed course for their successors.
Although observers thought that holding cross-strait political talks would not help Ma’s chance of being re-elected, if the Chinese side felt that his chances of serving a second term were slim or if they started to lose confidence in him, they could use the period before and after Taiwan’s next presidential election to ramp up pressure for a political agreement, said Lai, formerly director of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) International Affairs Department.
The most likely time for this would be within six months after the March 2012 election, at which time China would withdraw all the concessions it had made to Taiwan over the preceding four years, Lai said.
The theme of yesterday’s forum was “Can we maintain the status quo? How to approach political negotiations between the Chinese Nationalist and Chinese Communist parties.”
Former Government Information Office (GIO) minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), chairing the forum, said it was now the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Chinese Communist Party who, between them, were trying to change the status quo in cross-strait relations.
Lin said the ECFA “has set a harmful precedent, and that a similar formula was now likely to be applied to political negotiations,” including a peace agreement and mechanism for mutual trust in military matters.
The major drawbacks of this formula include not seeking legislative approval before making cross-strait agreements and not subjecting them to legislative examination and oversight or public referendum once they have been signed, Lin said.
The ECFA was negotiated by bodies outside established structures of government that were given a completely free hand to conduct economic talks, and this put cross-strait relations beyond oversight by bodies representing public opinion, Lin said.
Also See: Pact details still murky: analysts
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS