Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch (張家祝) is to promote the cross-strait service trade agreement at National Tsing Hua University and National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu today and Wednesday respectively.
The minister is to exchange views on the pact with students at a forum at each university, economics officials said.
Since students occupied the main chamber of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei on March 18 to protest the government’s handling of the pact, economic officials have sought to defend the service trade pact with China and have promoted it at different schools, saying the pact is vital to the nation’s economic integration in the region.
The campaign was launched by Chang’s colleague, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Woody Duh (杜紫軍) on Monday last week, when he delivered a speech at National Chengchi University in Taipei and National Taipei University in New Taipei City to explain the necessity of the pact.
In addition to the forum at Tsing Hua Univesity and Chiao Tung University, officials are scheduled to give eight presentations at universities in northern Taiwan before Thursday, in a bid to woo student support for the pact.
The officials said they have offered to give presentations on the pact at different schools since August last year, but only 18 of the 454 university departments they contacted have scheduled presentations.
However, the pact has become a controversial issue since protesters began occupying the Legislative Yuan.
Chinese National Federation of Industries secretary-general Tsai Lien-sheng (蔡練生) on Saturday said that Taiwan needs to be ready to “give” if it wants to participate in economic trade blocs.
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” Tsai said, adding that the “give” part of give-and-take must be emphasized in negotiations.
Trade liberalization is necessary to catch up economically, he said, citing a 10 percent decline in machinery exports to the US since the South Korea-US free-trade agreement took effect.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
RSS