The Executive Yuan’s Referendum Review Committee yesterday again turned down a referendum proposal by the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) on the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), despite a ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court last month that said the committee must review the application.
“With a nine-to-three vote, the committee has decided to reject the TSU’s proposed referendum on whether the government should sign the ECFA with China based on two major reasons,” committee chairman Chao Yung-mau (趙永茂) said after he walked out of a four-hour meeting.
“The first reason is that the question asked in the referendum and the contents of the petition for the referendum are contradictory, and second, the Referendum Act (公民投票法) stipulates that issues related to tariffs and taxation cannot be decided in a referendum,” he said.
Photo: CNA
He said the TSU’s referendum proposal asks whether voters agree that the government should have signed the ECFA with China, while in the petition, the TSU asked voters whether they agree with the actual contents of the ECFA that the government signed with China in 2010.
Asked whether the committee has violated the ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court by rejecting the referendum proposal, Chao said he did not think so.
“The Supreme Administrative Court wanted us to do two things — to hold public hearings on the referendum and to review the proposal. We did both,” Chao said.
Two years ago, when the Referendum Review Committee turned down the TSU’s referendum proposal on the same issue, the party filed a lawsuit against the committee, questioning the legitimacy of its decision.
Last month, the Supreme Administrative Court handed down its final ruling, which required the committee to make up for some missed steps.
Before the meeting started at 9:30am, about 30 to 40 supporters of the TSU, led by TSU Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉), rallied outside the meeting venue, urging the committee to pass the referendum proposal.
The Referendum Act stipulates that a proposal, after completing the first stage by collecting the signatures of 0.5 percent of the number of people eligible to vote in the previous presidential election, must obtain the approval of the Referendum Review Committee before it can proceed to the next stage, collecting signatures from 5 percent of those eligible to vote. It must then pass a second review before making it to polling stations.
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) yesterday said his party would file an administrative suit against the commission over its rejection of the party’s proposed referendum on the ECFA.
Huang said the reasons the commission had given for rejecting it had already been ruled by the Supreme Administrative Court as illegal, adding that the contents of the ECFA include commerce and the tertiary sector, which have no connection with issues about domestic tariffs.
“The commission’s reasons simply show that it is rejecting the TSU referendum for the sake of it,” Huang said.
“We will ask the Control Yuan to move for the impeachment of the nine members of the commission who voted to deny the party’s referendum proposal,” Huang said, adding that the party would pursue administrative action against the commission as soon as possible.
Additional reporting by CNA
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela, and would continue to cooperate with democratic allies and work together for regional and global security, stability, and prosperity. The remarks came after the US on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was later flown to New York along with his wife. The pair face US charges related to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations. Maduro has denied the allegations. The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the political and economic situation
UNRELENTING: China attempted cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure 2.63 million times per day last year, up from 1.23 million in 2023, the NSB said China’s cyberarmy has long engaged in cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, employing diverse and evolving tactics, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure last year increased 10-fold compared with the previous year. The NSB yesterday released a report titled Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025, outlining the number of cyberattacks, major tactics and hacker groups. Taiwan’s national intelligence community identified a large number of cybersecurity incidents last year, the bureau said in a statement. China’s cyberarmy last year launched an average of 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day targeting Taiwan’s critical
‘SLICING METHOD’: In the event of a blockade, the China Coast Guard would intercept Taiwanese ships while its navy would seek to deter foreign intervention China’s military drills around Taiwan this week signaled potential strategies to cut the nation off from energy supplies and foreign military assistance, a US think tank report said. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted what it called “Justice Mission 2025” exercises from Monday to Tuesday in five maritime zones and airspace around Taiwan, calling them a warning to “Taiwanese independence” forces. In a report released on Wednesday, the Institute for the Study of War said the exercises effectively simulated blocking shipping routes to major port cities, including Kaohsiung, Keelung and Hualien. Taiwan would be highly vulnerable under such a blockade, because it
RSS