Academics and civil groups yesterday urged the government not to back down from what they called the “basic demands” in its negotiations with China over an investment protection deal aimed at ensuring fair treatment for the estimated 1 million Taiwanese investors and others working in China.
The pact is expected to be signed by the end of this month, and there has been growing concern over its contents, especially over the arbitration method specified for resolving disputes.
The Alliance of Supervising Cross-Strait Agreements held a press conference yesterday to outline the “worries” over the content that both sides have reportedly agreed to. It castigated the government for “narrowly” characterizing the security issue for Taiwanese businesspeople in China as simply a technical problem of arrest notification. The alliance also accused the government of abandoning its position on a third-party arbitration mechanism.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) has called the pact “a major breakthrough,” with Taiwan convincing China to agree to notify Taipei within 24 hours if anyone covered by the pact saw his or her freedom of movement restricted under certain circumstances, alliance convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said.
“We absolutely do not think that [this article] alone would protect personal liberty. More elements need to be included in the agreement,” Lai said.
The alliance demanded the government ask Beijing to promise to remove articles 64 and 72 of its Criminal Procedure Law, which would allow Chinese authorities not to carry out the 24-hour notification if they determine that such notice would hinder an investigation.
There must be speedy notification in all cases, without exception, the alliance said.
However, a notification mechanism alone would not be enough to protect Taiwanese from being tortured or forced to confess, the alliance said. Only ensuring visitation rights to family members and lawyers as well as Taiwanese officials during detention could ensure such protection, it said.
The government must also demand that China promise in the new agreement to revise its Criminal Procedure Law to entitle suspects to have an attorney present during any questioning, it said.
The alliance also called on the government to push China to phase out its pre-arrest administrative detention system, as stipulated in Article 69 of its Criminal Procedure Law.
“We have seen several cases of Taiwanese businesspeople being kept in prisons for a month or more before trial. The legislature has asked China to review the pre-arrest detention system, but China has remained deaf. If the agreement is to be signed, China must give a promise that it will phase out the system in three years,” Lai said.
Honigmann Hong (洪財隆), who is an assistant professor in National Tsing Hua University’s China studies program, urged the government to insist that any disputes under the new accord be brought before an impartial third party for arbitration, rather than employing a bilateral settlement mechanism.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS