The pan-green camp yesterday criticized the 19-point recommendation reached by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on Sunday, saying it showed contempt for the legislature and the mainstream opinions of the 23 million Taiwanese.
The recommendation, reached and announced at the ninth KMT-CCP forum that was concluded on Sunday in Nanning, China, listed the implementation of the cross-strait service trade agreement as a top priority.
“While the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] has always supported free trade, we argue that the unfair pact poses a ‘clear and immediate’ danger to small and medium enterprises in Taiwan,” DPP Department of China Affairs director Honigmann Hong (洪財隆) said in a press release issued late on Sunday.
The forum’s recommendation ignores the rapidly decreasing support for the pact among the Taiwanese public over the fear of the harm it could cause the local service sectors, Hong said.
He reiterated that the DPP is demanding that the agreement be renegotiated because of the lack of transparency during the initial talks, as well as the failure to consult with the affected sectors.
According to a legislative resolution resulting from cross-party negotiations, the pact is scheduled to be screened and voted on clause-by-clause this week in the legislature.
The establishment of the forum, which began in 2005, was the CCP’s and the KMT’s attempt to bypass the previous DPP administration and make decisions on cross-strait relations a party-to-party mechanism that excluded the public, Hong said.
“I don’t think [the forum] can speak for Taiwanese,” he said.
While the forum recommended holding a joint discussion on “linking both sides’ efforts to participate in Asia-Pacific economic integration,” the director said it was Beijing that had blocked Taipei’s efforts to join integration in the past.
Hong added that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has been inconsistent in its stance on a number of experimental free-trade zones on China’s southeastern coast, with the Mainland Affairs Council de-emphasizing Beijing’s promotion of the zones due to their “strong political implications.”
However, the KMT, of which Ma is chairman, has been encouraging Taiwanese businesspeople to invest in the zones this year, he said.
Comments by Yu Zhengsheng (俞正聲), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee, which blamed “a group of Taiwanese independence supporters” for stalling the ratification of the service trade pact in the legislature, said Beijing “did not understand Taiwan at all,” DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said.
More than 70 percent of respondents in most public opinion polls oppose the pact and only a handful of KMT lawmakers support it, Lee said.
Throughout its history, the forum has shown Taiwanese nothing except how high-ranking KMT officials fawn over Beijing for personal gain — be it financial or political — Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said yesterday.
The forum has been a platform for the KMT’s strategy of “collaboration with the CCP in containing Taiwan,” through which politicians from both sides of the Taiwan Strait exchange favors without regard for the Taiwanese public’s interests, Huang said.
With the emphasis on the cross-strait service trade agreement, the forum has now become a tool with which China can pressure the Ma administration, he said.
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of
RSS