Eric Chu (朱立倫), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate in the Sinbei City election, said yesterday the opposition party’s “politically maneuvered” campaign against the government’s plan to sign a cross-strait trade pact with China would not appeal to most voters in the year-end elections.
Chu said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should adopt a “rational and objective” attitude on the issue.
“It is necessary to look at the issue from an objective and rational perspective,” Chu said on the sidelines of a seminar on an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China.
PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
“If it [the campaign] is handled through political maneuvering, it will not appeal to the majority of voters,” said Chu, who stepped down as vice premier last month to run in the year-end elections.
Chu, who is also KMT vice chairman, is running against DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in the Sinbei race.
After the Referendum Review Committee on Thursday rejected the Taiwan Solidarity Union’s (TSU) proposal to hold a referendum on whether Taiwan should sign an ECFA, the DPP said it would launch a “10-year war of resistance” and would continue to push for a referendum on the pact, which is expected to be signed later this month.
The review committee rejected the TSU initiative on the grounds that it did not conform with the law because of a “conflict between the reasoning and the question itself.”
The DPP last night organized an activity in Kaohsiung City to help step up the campaign against the cross-trait trade pact.
Critics of an ECFA say it would result in an influx of Chinese workers and cheap goods from China, while also making Taiwan too dependent on China and potentially undermining Taiwan’s sovereignty.
The KMT government, on the other hand, argues that the pact is as an important means to normalize trade relations between Taiwan and China and would help overcome China’s moves to block Taiwan from signing free-trade agreements with other countries.
The special municipality elections will take place on Nov. 27 in Taipei City, Xinbei City, Greater Taichung, Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung — whose populations together account for 70 percent of the country’s total.
The races are viewed as a bellwether for the 2012 presidential election and a gauge of the popularity of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is expected to seek reelection, but whose approval ratings have remained low for most of the two years he has been in office.
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