Pan-green lawmakers occupied the floor of the legislative chamber yesterday morning with placards reading “the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] and the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] are hollowing out Taiwan’s [economy]” to protest the cross-strait service trade agreement that was signed yesterday afternoon.
As a result of the boycott, the plenary session, which had been scheduled to review a number of bills, was forced to adjourn until Tuesday.
“We paralyzed the meeting because the cross-strait service trade agreement was a backroom deal. We must reveal the truth to the public,” Taiwan Solidarity Union legislative caucus whip Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) said.
Photo: CNA
Hsu said the party demanded that the agreement be sent to the legislature for approval, not just for the record, and that Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) present the agreement to the legislature to discuss its benefits and drawbacks with lawmakers.
“The agreement cannot become effective unless the legislature rectifies it,” Hsu said.
The Mainland Affairs Council had said that it would only submit the agreement on service trade to the legislature for record after the Executive Yuan approves it, citing Article 5 of the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).
Under the article, cross-strait agreements which do not require any amendments to laws or any new legislation must be submitted to the Executive Yuan for approval and then to the legislature for record.
Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) was one of the KMT lawmakers who vowed to rigorously review the agreement to assess how it would impact the nation’s service sector.
“Which sectors are likely to be harmed? The government should be open to the public about that,” Lo said.
KMT legislative caucus whip Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said the party would not be against reviewing the trade pact in the legislature.
“We understand why the public has expressed concerns over the agreement. Their concerns need to be addressed,” Lai said.
Democratic Progressive Party legislative caucus whip Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said the agreement would affect the nation in a “destructive” way, with 72 percent of the nation’s service industry which employs 7 million workers being affected by the pact.
“It’s not that we oppose trade normalization with China, but Taiwan could lose its competitive edge as a result of the agreement. There is no shortage of funds, technology or workforce in service sectors in Taiwan,” Pan said.
Meanwhile, the People First Party (PFP) issued a press release saying that the legislature was vested with the power to rectify or abrogate the agreement.
The PFP added that it opposed lifting the cap on Chinese investment in sectors that would devastate local businesses and demanded that the government allocate sufficient funds to help businesspeople upgrade or transform their businesses and to assist local businesses in tapping Chinese markets as complementary measures to reduce negative impacts.
In response to media inquiries, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said he had no idea which sectors the trade pact would cover because the Mainland Affairs Council has never briefed him on the contents either.
SOLVED: Domestic orders have already overtaken the total sold to China last year, while the Canadian and US representative offices posted messages of support A joint effort by groups and individuals in Taiwan and abroad to prop up sales of pineapples after China announced a ban on imports of the fruit succeeded in just four days, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday. China on Friday announced that it would suspend imports of Taiwanese pineapples starting on Monday, citing biosafety concerns. Following the announcement, the council urged the public to assist farmers by purchasing pineapples, saying it hoped to sell 20,000 tonnes of the fruit domestically and 30,000 tonnes in exports. “Domestic orders have already surpassed the total sold to China last year,” COA Minister
Taiwanese netizens and politicians yesterday mocked a Chinese plan to build a transportation network linking Beijing and Taipei, calling it “science fiction” and “daydreaming.” Their comments were in reaction to the Chinese State Council’s release last week of its “Guidelines on the National Comprehensive Transportation Network Plan,” which include several proposed transportation links, with one map showing a line running from China’s Jingjinji Metropolitan Region (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei) across the Taiwan Strait to Taipei. “This is the Chinese leadership daydreaming again of [fulfilling its] fantasy of extending China’s transportation network to Taiwan. I suggest people regard it as science fiction,” Democratic Progressive
‘UNITED FRONT’: Grooming young Taiwanese to become Internet celebrities or hosts is a Chinese tactic to spread propaganda to influence young people, a source said As part of its “united front” tactics, China has been grooming young Taiwanese to become Internet celebrities or Internet program hosts, a source said on condition of anonymity. Over the past year, about 1,000 Taiwanese living in China have participated in training programs and competitions for show hosts held in several cities, including Xiamen, Wenzhou and Hangzhou, the source said on Saturday. “Beijing is taking advantage of the openness of the Internet to spread propaganda about acceptance of China, and about ‘national security,’” the source said, adding that Taiwan’s national security officials are racing to fix the problem. Chinese infiltration of
MAIN CHALLENGE: The US naval commander warned that China would seek to ‘forcibly change’ the balance of power in the region that would likely be permanent The US encourages Taiwan to invest in defense and obtain asymmetric defense capabilities, US Navy Admiral Philip Davidson said on Thursday. Davidson, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, made the remark in a videoconference on defense matters hosted by the American Enterprise Institute think tank. “China is positioned to achieve overmatch” in its military capability by 2026, he said. When Beijing is able to, it would “likely choose to forcibly change” the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region, “and I would say the change in that status quo could be permanent,” he said. “China seeks a new world order, one with Chinese characteristics,
RSS