China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) earlier this week touted the possible upsides of the cross-strait service trade agreement, while playing down student protesters’ concerns that it will hurt Taiwan’s interests.
TAO spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) said that Beijing has been closely following the situation and that advancing cross-strait economic cooperation benefits both sides.
“I believe we and the compatriots on both sides of the strait feel the same — we don’t want to see the progress of cross-strait economic cooperation affected,” he said about the protests in Taiwan at a news conference on Wednesday in Beijing.
He also downplayed some concerns voiced by Taiwanese over the service trade pact. Some worry about an influx of workers from China to Taiwan, he said, but that topic is not actually included in the service trade agreement. Taiwan has not opened its door to workers from China, he said.
He also denied the rumors that Chinese can immigrate to Taiwan for a fee of 48,000 yuan.
The trade-in-services agreement is an economic pact, he said, adding that the two sides of the strait cannot leave themselves out of the process of regional economic integration.
From China’s perspective, it is a mutually beneficial agreement, he said.
Pushed on why so many in Taiwan have opposed the agreement, Ma said: “The answer must be found within Taiwan’s domestic society.”
Improvements in cross-strait relations over the past several years are a hard-won achievement, he said, adding that no one wants things to go back to the tensions that defined the relationship prior to 2008 (when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office).
While Chinese news media has not covered the protests, it has still drawn attention from many Chinese netizens commenting in discussion forums.
Some argue that China made many concessions in the service agreement, and others say that Taiwan will lose its opportunity for further economic development if it refuses to open its market.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
RSS