The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday said it would stop participating in interparty negotiations convened to resolve the political stalemate over the cross-strait service trade agreement because the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has repeatedly failed to respect the wishes of the public.
“We will stop attending the negotiations because the two sides remain oceans apart,” DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) told a press conference yesterday after the breakdown of the fourth round of interparty negotiations, convened by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) at his residence.
The negotiations were held to try to work out a solution to dealing with the agreement awaiting review by the legislature, hoping to put an end to the Sunflower student movement that has occupied the legislative floor since Tuesday last week.
The DPP has the same demands as the protesters, that the pact not be reviewed by the legislature until a legislative monitoring mechanism has been established, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
The KMT caucus insists that the mechanism and the review of the pact should be separate issues. It also insists that the review must be presided over by Wang and that the DPP agree not to filibuster the review process.
“What we have is the KMT playing a two-handed strategy as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) still refuses to answer the students’ demands directly,” Ker said.
While Wang has proposed initiating his own proposal to solve the conflict if the DPP and the KMT fail to agree, Ker said Wang’s proposal would be meaningless.
“The people are asking Ma for a positive response. The controversy will not end without Ma’s proposal,” Ker added.
Ker warned Ma that the trade pact controversy could become a “political nuclear bomb” that forces Ma’s early exit if the president fails to handle it carefully and refuses to listen to the public’s voice.
The student movement has not been losing steam, but gathering momentum since the bloody crackdown on the protesters at the Executive Yuan compound on Monday morning, Ker said.
“It shows the collective anxiety of Taiwanese toward the Ma administration’s pro-China position and its poor governance, and that the violation of democratic principles and constitutionalism has reached boiling point,” he said.
Wang said yesterday that he would keep working to bring the two sides together to find a consensus.
“At this critical moment for the country, all sides have to address the stalemate and work together to find a solution and regain the public’s trust,” Wang said.
Additional reporting by CNA
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
RSS