An initiative to refer the controversial Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) to a plebiscite has received enough signatures for submission to the Referendum Review Committee once again, organizers said.
Following two failed attempts earlier this year, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) announced yesterday it had gathered another 100,000 petition signatures, more than the number needed to be considered for placement on a future ballot.
“This initiative is reflective of the level of determination Taiwanese have to repeal the ECFA,” TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said, leading party members in submitting the boxes of signatures to the Central Election Commission.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
“Although the ECFA has already come into force, we still want to remind the public that the agreement’s negative effects will soon become increasingly apparent,” he said. “Very soon, everybody will be feeling the impact.”
The measure, which must be approved by the Central Election Commission and the referendum committee before it can proceed to the second stage of the referendum process, will put the entire agreement to a legally binding public vote.
The committee, which is responsible for screening referendum measures, earlier this year rejected two related proposals that were spearheaded by the TSU, citing a contradiction between the referendum question and content of the proposal. An earlier proposal raised by the DPP was also rejected last year.
The TSU claims that efforts to block the referendums were “unfair and undemocratic,” citing the Referendum Act (公投法), a position the government has dismissed.
Critics have said that the poll is necessary because the ECFA, which reduces cross-strait tariffs for select goods and services, will result in a harmful influx of cheaper Chinese goods. This could depress middle-class salaries and cost jobs, they said, especially among more traditional industries.
In April, a poll by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) found that 36 percent of Taiwanese surveyed said they opposed the agreement compared with 28 who supported it.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS