Representatives from civic groups yesterday urged the government to withdraw its proposed version of an oversight mechanism to monitor future cross-strait agreements.
Although a public hearing on the act was originally scheduled for yesterday, it was later replaced by an unofficial conference after Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) lawmakers on Tuesday launched a prolonged campaign to prevent the bill from reaching the Internal Administration Committee.
Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said the government’s version of the oversight bill lacked teeth, calling it nearly identical to a “four-stage communications and counseling mechanism” suggested by former premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) in March last year.
Lai said that the proposed bill required the government only to “explain” potential cross-strait treaties to the legislature, but it failed to grant the Legislative Yuan binding powers to monitor government actions.
“How can you present a public relations scheme as an oversight mechanism?” Lai asked, adding that the proposal presented no substantial changes to the government’s current “black box” methods for handling cross-strait affairs.
Lai demanded that the government withdraw its proposal, adding that all seven other proposals for the oversight mechanism were negotiable, including one version submitted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
In response, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) said that demands to withdraw the Executive Yuan’s version of the bill before the committee stage were “unfair” and “too arbitrary.”
Hsia added that any cross-strait oversight mechanism should be in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of China, adding that referring to China by its official title, the People’s Republic of China, would be unacceptable for any legislation as that would run against the Constitution.
There are eight versions of the proposed oversight mechanism pending reviews, including six put forward by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and one by KMT Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣).
Controversies over the oversight mechanism have simmered since the Sunflower movement protests in March and April last year, which included an extended occupation of the main legislative chamber by the student-led group after KMT Legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠) attempted to push through a service trade agreement with China without legislative deliberation.
While Chang was originally scheduled to preside over yesterday’s conference, fellow KMT lawmaker Chiu Wen-yen (邱文彥) chaired in his place following opposition to Chang’s role by the DPP and TSU over the past week.
“I am Chiu Wen-yen, not Chang Ching-chung,” Chiu said before yesterday’s meeting adjourned at midday.
Negotiations on the issue should continue, Chiu added.
Additional reporting by CNA
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods