Pro-independence organizations vowed yesterday to launch a long-term campaign against the government’s plan to sign a trade agreement with China and promised to take part in an anti-ECFA rally on June 26.
Officials and representatives from at least eight groups held a joint press conference in Taipei, chanting that they were against “secret negotiations between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and China that sell out a democratic Taiwan.”
Their call came amid increasing speculation that a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) could be signed within the next two weeks.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
In its strongest signal to date, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said on Sunday that talks on the trade pact, which include tariff reduction clauses and greater cooperation on cross-strait financial measures, should be seen as “a done deal.”
Speaking out strongly against the move, Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), secretary-general of the Taiwan Society and a professor of political science at Soochow University, said the government had yet to reveal the full content of the tightly guarded agreement.
“Although we are getting close to the signing date, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration still refuses to publicize the details of an ECFA,” Lo said.
Citing a lack of transparency, opposition parties, including the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), have called for a public vote on the agreement — a move twice rejected by the Referendum Review Committee.
Speaking alongside the pro-independence groups yesterday, DPP Deputy Secretary-General Kao Chien-chih (高建智) said the party’s opposition to an ECFA was based on concerns that it would increase Taiwan’s economic dependence on China.
“Ma’s intent to sign an ECFA is against Taiwan’s sovereignty and the people’s interests. An ECFA could lead to a ‘one China’ market — which we are strongly against,” he said.
Speaking for all the organizations gathered yesterday, Taiwan Rescue Action Alliance chief Lin Yi-cheng (林宜正) said they would try to sway voters ahead of November’s special municipality elections to vote against candidates who support an ECFA.
“We are getting ready to fight a protracted battle,” he said, pledging to gather up to 1 million votes aided via the Internet in an attempt to actively dissuade local politicians from supporting an ECFA.
Billy Pan (潘建志), head of the Taiwan Blog Association, promised to support the measure, saying the organization would encourage netizens to step up their opposition to an ECFA.
Pro-independence organizations also floated the possibility of encircling the legislature while it reviewed the agreement after negotiations close later this month. Government officials have said that an ECFA would be sent to the legislature for final approval before coming into effect.
The groups also said they would be gearing up for more protests in the future.
“Everything we are doing … only represents the start. It is not the conclusion of our opposition against an ECFA,” Lo said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods