Activists from various groups yesterday protested against a visit by the Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Chairman Chen Deming (陳德銘) over concerns about the negative impact of the cross-strait service trade agreement.
Protesters from the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and civic groups followed Chen, who arrived in Taipei yesterday for an eight-day visit, at every stop, including the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and the Strait Exchange Foundation’s (SEF) headquarters.
“Any cross-strait trade agreement should be transparent, monitored by the legislature and the public and not to be handled by unofficial organizations such as the SEF,” said Chen Ting-hao (陳廷豪), spokesperson of the Black Island National Youth Front, which is largely comprised of university students.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
“We oppose the trade mechanism, including the service trade pact, the soon-to-be-completed trade in goods agreement and the free economic pilot zones. They will only benefit large enterprises and harm local sectors,” he added.
The Black Island National Youth Front demanded that the government suspend the negotiations on a trade in goods agreement with Beijing until the principle of reciprocal and fairness is ensured.
The group’s views reflected widespread concerns by the opposition and various business sectors, which say that Beijing and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration intend to push the service trade pact through the Legislative Yuan as soon as possible and that Chen Deming’s visit was likely a form of Chinese pressure.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
The wave of protests began at about noon, with a group of students, TSU members and Falun Gong practitioners shouting slogans and holding placards and banners when Chen Deming appeared at the airport.
A student broke through police lines and got close to Chen Deming at the exit, but was taken away by officers. More than 100 officers had been deployed at the airport.
Chen Deming was greeted by SEF Vice Chairman Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) at the airport, and attended a luncheon hosted by Taoyuan County Commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) while protesters were blocked outside the terminal.
He and his delegation later visited a free-trade harbor zone at the planned Taoyuan Aerotropolis project and the Taipei harbor, and then met with SEF Chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森) in the foundation’s building, where protesters were waiting outside.
There was a brief scuffle between protesters and police outside the building.
“The service trade agreement was a collaboration between the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] and the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] to hollow out Taiwan service industry’s competitiveness,” several TSU members said.
Chen Deming, who has visited Taiwan before, said he looks forward to experiencing the nation’s beauty and great food.
As China continues to open its markets and facilitate the reform of the economic system, he said businesses from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should enjoy more opportunities and create more profits.
While his trip was aimed at promoting economic and trade cooperation between Taiwan and China and seeking cooperation opportunities, the SEF and the ARATS can also take the occasion to engage in follow-up negotiations on the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), he said.
“The most important task across the Taiwan Strait is to promote the main items of the ECFA, including the early harvest list, investment protection, service trade, goods trade and dispute settlement. We should continue to work on it,” he said.
Taiwan’s free economic pilot zones, a project under which six harbors and the planned Taoyuan Aerotropolis will be designated as models of liberation, are the focus of Chen Deming’s trip.
Chen Deming’s delegation is to visit Pingtung County and Greater Kaohsiung today, then travel to Greater Tainan, Chiayi County, Greater Taichung and Hsinchu County, before returning to Taipei and New Taipei City (新北市).
Senior KMT members, including former vice president and KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) will meet with Chen Deming during his trip.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said he would also meet with the Chinese official and seek business opportunities for businesses in Taipei.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
RSS