Advocates and dozens of civic groups yesterday condemned the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus for sending the cross-strait service trade agreement to a plenary session without it being screened, adding that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the KMT “have declared war on Taiwan’s democracy.”
In a joint meeting of eight legislative committees to review the controversial pact, yesterday’s agenda was put forth by the KMT caucus, leading the Democratic Progressive Party to criticize the ruling party for “forcing” a final vote on the agreement — one the KMT would be sure to win.
“If that’s the case, Taiwanese have no choice but to declare war on Ma and lawmakers who know nothing but loyalty to Ma,” Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), a research fellow at Academia Sinica, said yesterday evening.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Earlier yesterday at a protest held in front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, the protesters gave Ma, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and the KMT caucus a 24-hour deadline to agree to six demands about the controversial trade pact.
They demanded that the agreement should neither be directly sent for a second reading nor take effect automatically, also that the legislature review the agreement clause by clause and list the withdrawal or suspension of the pact as alternative options.
“We could hardly believe that Ma and the KMT have done this on the first day [of a three-day review session]. We will immediately stage a sit-in here until Ma and the KMT make an appropriate response to our demands,” Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強), convener of the Democratic Front Against Cross-strait Trade in Services Agreement, told a press conference in front of the legislature yesterday evening.
The protesters called for a line-by-line review of the deal and adjustments to mitigate the possible damage to local businesses.
“With more than 70 percent of the people supporting a clause-by-clause review [of the pact], we think that a president with a 9 percent support rate has no right to unilaterally decide Taiwan’s future,” Lai said, adding that the KMT’s disregard of mainstream public opinion was a failure of Taiwan’s democracy.
“It is obvious to me that Ma has forced Taiwanese to search for an ‘outside-the-system’ solution, so that is what we’re going to do,” said Hsu Wei-chun (徐偉群), convener of Taiwan Democracy Watch.
Additional reporting by CNA
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
China Airlines Ltd (CAL) yesterday morning joined SkyTeam’s Aviation Challenge for the fourth time, operating a demonstration flight for “net zero carbon emissions” from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Bangkok. The flight used sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at a ratio of up to 40 percent, the highest proportion CAL has achieved to date, the nation’s largest carrier said. Since April, SAF has become available to Taiwanese international carriers at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), Kaohsiung International Airport and Taoyuan airport. In previous challenges, CAL operated “net zero carbon emission flights” to Singapore and Japan. At a ceremony at Taoyuan airport, China Airlines chief sustainability
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS