Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) on Wednesday said his visiting Chinese counterpart has “responded positively” to his proposal to reopen negotiations on certain items in the cross-strait service trade agreement signed last year on the condition that it is first put into effect.
Wang made the remarks at a press conference following a meeting with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), who arrived on Wednesday on his first visit to Taiwan.
The council minister said that at the meeting, he proposed “allowing the service trade agreement to be enforced first, with the two sides then starting to negotiate controversial articles through an emergency mechanism.”
That would effectively mean that only parts of the agreement would go into effect, pending the document’s review by the legislature.
The mechanism proposed by the council official was included in the articles of the original agreement to deal with “emergency” situations, Wang said.
He added that he thinks this solution is a better option than trying to toss out the entire content of the accord and reopening the negotiations conducted by the Straits Exchange Foundation and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits in June last year.
The trade pact has been stuck in limbo after meeting opposition from legislators across party lines and many members of the public.
The agreement’s critics fear that it could open a “back door” through which Chinese enterprises and workers will flood Taiwan, threatening local jobs and businesses.
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
Taiwanese indie band Sunset Rollercoaster and South Korean outfit Hyukoh collectively received the most nominations at this year’s Golden Melody Awards, earning a total of seven nods from the jury on Wednesday. The bands collaborated on their 2024 album AAA, which received nominations for best band, best album producer, best album design and best vocal album recording. “Young Man,” a single from the album, earned nominations for song of the year and best music video, while another track, “Antenna,” also received a best music video nomination. Late Hong Kong-American singer Khalil Fong (方大同) was named the jury award winner for his 2024 album
Hong Kong singer Eason Chan’s (陳奕迅) concerts in Kaohsiung this weekend have been postponed after he was diagnosed with Covid-19 this morning, the organizer said today. Chan’s “FEAR and DREAMS” concert which was scheduled to be held in the coming three days at the Kaohsiung Arena would be rescheduled to May 29, 30 and 31, while the three shows scheduled over the next weekend, from May 23 to 25, would be held as usual, Universal Music said in a statement. Ticket holders can apply for a full refund or attend the postponed concerts with the same seating, the organizer said. Refund arrangements would
RSS