With the legislature set to review a controversial service trade agreement with China during the current session, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it was aiming to force a renegotiation of the accord.
DPP officials and legislators set down four principles to guide the review during a weekly meeting between party headquarters and the legislative caucus for discussions of major policies.
The four principles are: reciprocal market opening, fair competition, public livelihood and national security, DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
While the DPP has always supported free trade, China is a special case because of the political implications and the differences in the two countries’ economic systems and market sizes, Lin quoted DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) as saying, adding that both sides had made different pledges upon their accession to the WTO in 2002, with Taiwan opening up 58 percent of its market while China only opened 37 percent.
Liberalization as listed in the agreement is not reciprocal as far as cross-border trade in services and commercial presence is concerned, which constitutes unfair competition, Lin said.
For example, China would limit Taiwanese investment in Fujian Province to certain sectors, while Taiwan would not place restrictions on Chinese investment in the service sector, Lin said.
Service sectors that are likely to suffer a severe impact from the agreement and those that are related to national security, information security and freedom of speech also require extra protection, the DPP said.
According to an inter-party negotiation in June last year, the service trade agreement is to be screened in the legislature clause-by-clause after a series of public hearings are held.
With the last public hearing scheduled to be held next week, Su urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to respect the results of inter-party negotiations and mainstream public opinion, despite President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) call for a speedy screening and passage of the agreement.
The DPP also urged the KMT to stop blocking several legislative proposals on cross-strait agreement monitoring and supervision of Chinese investment in the legislature’s Procedure Committee as they are designed to serve as legal safeguards for cross-strait dealings in the future.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) reiterated that the DPP caucus would not allow the KMT to push through the screening and approval of the cross-strait deal by the conclusion of the current session.
‘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
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
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
RSS