Taiwanese artists, academics and representatives from the publishing and media sectors issued a joint statement yesterday calling on the government to reopen negotiations on the service trade pact that Taiwan and China signed last month.
The statement demanded that the Legislative Yuan hold individual public hearings on every industry affected by the pact and postpone a review of, or voting on, the pact until the government has released reports evaluating the impact of the agreement on Taiwan’s industries, society and national security.
The government should also recommence negotiations with China on the basis of the results of the legislature’s item-by-item review of the pact, according to the statement, which was issued by 18 academics, artists and representatives of the publishing and media industries.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Rex How (郝明義), a presidential adviser and chairman of Locus Publishing Co (大塊文化), questioned the negotiation process and criticized the government for not fully communicating with local businesses before signing the agreement.
Jang Show-ling (鄭秀玲), professor and chair of National Taiwan University’s Department of Economics, said the service pact would affect more than 1,000 industries and millions of workers in Taiwan, but the government has not been honest with the public about the impact of the agreement.
China has not committed in many areas to allowing Taiwanese companies to provide cross-border services, Jang said, adding that this could trigger an exodus of many Taiwanese professionals as well as small and medium-sized enterprises to China.
Under the agreement, China will open 80 service categories to Taiwanese investors, while Taiwan will open 64 categories to Chinese investment, including e-commerce, transportation, finance and medical care.
Although the sensitive publishing sector was not included in the pact, Jang questioned whether the opening of wholesale and retail services would allow Chinese publishers to sell their books in Taiwan.
“The doors are wide open,” she said.
Popular novelist and filmmaker Giddens Ko (柯景騰) called for a serious public debate on the issue, saying that the signing of the agreement should have followed a more democratic process.
“I hoped that the negotiation process could be more transparent, so that we could have a basic trust in the government,” Ko said.
Ruling and opposition legislators have reached a consensus that the agreement should be reviewed by all legislative committees during a Legislative Yuan extraordinary session, scheduled to be held from yesterday through Friday next week.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the