The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government of integrating itself with China, saying that every time one of the party’s proposals for a referendum on the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) was rejected, a cross-strait announcement was made shortly afterward.
“All these ‘coincidences’ suggest the government is deliberately fawning over China,” TSU -Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) said.
On Wednesday, the Cabinet’s Referendum Review Committee turned down for the third time a TSU-sponsored proposal to hold a referendum on the ECFA that was signed by Taiwan and China in June last year.
The referendum proposal aimed to ask voters whether they agreed with the government’s decision to sign the ECFA with China.
Lin said that shortly after the party’s first ECFA referendum proposal was rejected by the committee on June 3 last year, Taiwan and China signed the ECFA on June 29.
The TSU’s second ECFA referendum proposal was struck down on Aug. 11 last year and the very next month President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration made a simultaneous announcement with Beijing that the ECFA would go into effect on Sept. 12 last year, Lin said.
On Wednesday, after the committee squashed the TSU’s referendum proposal for the third time, both sides of the strait announced the next day the establishment of the Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Committee (CSECC), Lin added.
Saying that the CSECC was initially scheduled to be announced at the end of last year, Lin called into question its delay, saying it was unusual.
In 2009, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also initiated an ECFA referendum, which the committee rejected on Aug. 27, 2009. Shortly afterward, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama visited southern Taiwan to pray for the victims of Typhoon Morakot.
Lin said it was rumored at the time that Ma’s government, in a bid to maintain “cross-strait harmony,” could not “consecutively displease” Beijing, therefore it needed to “take care” of the DPP’s referendum proposal.
The repeated rejections of ECFA referendum proposals only cements the public’s impression that Ma’s government is a China-leaning government, Lin said.
“Ma’s government fawns over China by killing the wishes of Taiwanese to hold a referendum. This action is tantamount to ‘spanking one’s own children for others to see,’” Lin said, adding that “people will eventually be disgusted by the kind of attitude harbored by Ma’s administration.”
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