Vice Premier and soon-to-be premier Simon Chang (張善政) yesterday said that president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) attitude would determine whether the negotiation for a cross-strait trade in goods agreement could continue, calling on Tsai to “recognize” the results so far achieved by the negotiation team.
In a radio interview, Chang said his Chinese counterpart has an “ambivalent” attitude regarding the agreement, as “they do not know whether the negotiation and the outcome achieved so far will count when the next administration takes office, since there have been calls to scrap the cross-strait service trade agreement and restart negotiations.”
Chang said the current administration has little power over the fate of the deal and it depends on messages from Tsai and the Democratic Progressive Party in the next few months and Beijing’s reactions to them to keep the negotiations on track.
Photo: CNA
He said that the negotiators are all expert civil servants with no political affiliations.
“While the content of the negotiation should not be disclosed, I can assure you that so far we have gained better terms than what South Korea has secured in its free-trade agreement with China,” Chang said.
Chang said that the government would transfer every detail of the negotiations to the new government and it is up to the new administration to decide whether the negotiations are to be continued, adding that the possibility of the agreement being signed when he is in office is extremely slim.
The “cross-strait hotline” between the Mainland Affairs Council and the Chinese Taiwan Affairs Office, set up at the end of last year, has reportedly been “cut off” since the Jan. 16 elections, Chang said during the interview.
“The line is still there, but it is another matter if they want to pick it up,” he said.
As for the rumor that Beijing has cut the number of Chinese tourists allowed to travel to Taiwan in response to the election results, Chang said the Chinese side has denied the allegation while domestic travel agencies confirmed it.
“Although they have denied it, we still have our own observations,” he said. “Sometimes you have to make your own judgment when it comes to the cross-strait relationship.”
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