The Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan demanded yesterday that Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) participate in a public debate on the government’s plan to sign a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) with China.
More than 40 alliance members made the call during a demonstration in front of the foundation’s Taipei headquarters to protest against the proposed CECA and to urge the government to hold a referendum on the issue.
Alliance representative Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) said that if Taiwan signs a CECA under the “one China” principle, the agreement would symbolize Taiwan’s surrender to China.
PHOTO: CNA
“The signing of such an agreement will be an act of betrayal of the Taiwanese people,” he said, adding that the CECA would compromise Taiwan’s sovereignty and jeopardize its economic and political interests.
The public should decide by national referendum whether or not the government should sign a CECA with China, he said.
“The Straits Exchange Foundation and other government agencies have no right to make that decision without public consensus,” Tsai said. “If Chiang has the determination and courage to sign a CECA with China, then he should have the courage to participate in a public debate on the issue.”
A foundation official came out of the building to accept a written petition from the demonstrators.
Meanwhile, Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢), director of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Policy Research Committee, held a press conference yesterday to question the government’s apparent rush to sign an economic pact with China.
“We do not know why the government is rushing a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement with China. Where is the pressure coming from? Does this mean that the KMT [Chinese Nationalist Party] government has reached an agreement with China on such an agreement, and wanted to make it happen quickly?” he said.
The DPP insists Taiwan should sign a free-trade agreement (FTA) with major economies, not an economic cooperation pact with China, Chuang said.
A referendum is needed before the KMT government negotiates with China on the agreement, he said.
Meanwhile, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday that government agencies had agreed to refer to the proposed pact only by its full Chinese name, instead of the acronym CECA to avoid misunderstandings over the English name of the proposed deal.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, said that when its officials speak to foreign dignitaries about the proposed agreement, they will use the agreement’s full English name, or whatever language is spoken by the dignitaries.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU
Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung. The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei. Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
Labor rights groups yesterday called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, days after CNN reported alleged far-ranging abuses in the sector, including deaths and forced work. The ministry must enforce domestic labor protection laws on Taiwan-owned deep-sea fishing vessels, the Coalition for Human Rights for Migrant Fishers told a news conference outside the ministry in Taipei after presenting a petition to officials. CNN on Sunday reported that Taiwanese seafood giant FCF Co, the owners of the US-based Bumble Bee Foods, committed human rights abuses against migrant fishers, citing Indonesian migrant fishers. The alleged abuses included denying
RSS