Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Chairman Chen Deming’s (陳德銘) eight-day visit to Taiwan starting today is an affront to Taiwanese sovereignty and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should cancel the visit immediately, the pan-green camp said yesterday.
Chen’s group, including ARATS officials and Chinese business leaders, will focus on Taiwan’s “free economic pilot zones,” a project under which six harbors and the planned Taoyuan Aerotropolis will be designated as models of liberalization.
The pan-green camp is concerned that the project will spur a mass influx of Chinese white--collar workers, Chinese agricultural products and investment in local businesses previously off-limits to Chinese capital.
Chen’s group will visit Pingtung County and Greater Kaohsiung tomorrow, then travel north, stopping in Greater Tainan, Chiayi County, Greater Taichung and Hsinchu County, finally returning to Taipei and New Taipei City (新北市).
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) held a press conference in which it alleged that Chen’s visit was aimed at applying political pressure on Taiwan’s economy and attempting to force Ma’s hand on the cross-strait service trade agreement and the free economic pilot zones.
Chen’s visit under the guise of “economic interaction” is not so simple a matter, TSU caucus whip Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) said.
His plan to visit the Taoyuan Aerotropolis, Taipei Harbor, Greater Taichung Harbor, Greater Kaohsiung Harbor and the Pingtung Biological and Agricultural Science Park, designated as free economic pilot zones, indicated Chinese pressure on the Ma administration to expedite the project and the cross-strait service trade agreement.
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said that Taiwan has its own laws, and all accords or treaties with foreign nations must be supported by the public before they can be ratified by the Legislative Yuan.
“We hope that Chen will not try to tell Taiwan what to do when he visits,” Huang said.
TSU deputy whip Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲) also said that Chen’s arrival drew more Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials to visit him than Ma, including former KMT vice president Lien Chan (連戰) and former KMT chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄), former Straits Exchange Foundation chairman (SEF) Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), as well as People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and the owners of large firms, such as Want Want and Foxconn.
It is evident that Ma’s influence over cross-strait policy is waning fast and that corporations are beginning to sideline the Ma administration, she said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) echoed the TSU’s sentiments and called on people to protest Chen’s visit.
Gao called for the government to cancel Chen’s visit as a protest against China’s demarcation of an East China Sea air defense identification zone (ADIZ), which is a serious affront to Taiwanese sovereignty.
Meanwhile, in answer to the call to shadow Chen’s entourage for the duration of his visit and show Chen how strongly Taiwanese resent the cross-strait service trade agreement and the setting up of the economic free pilot zones, the Black Island National Youth Front yesterday said that it would be greeting Chen at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport today at 11am.
The group said that it hoped to show Chen how Taiwanese resent Chinese influence on Taiwanese politics, how the public opposes the cross-strait service trade agreement and how Taiwanese resolutely oppose the free economic pilot zones, which would greatly hurt Taiwan’s agriculture and job market.
Additional reporting by Lo Tien-pin, Chen Tzu-wen, and CNA
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS