The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should move quickly to pass supervisory articles governing relations with China, academics affiliated with the Economic Democracy Union said yesterday, saying the party had failed to push a primary objective of the Sunflower movement.
“Even though the DPP promised to pass articles swiftly, they have failed to put them on the agenda,” said Chiou Wen-tsong (邱文聰), an Academia Sinica jurist who drafted the civil version of articles promoted by Sunflower activists.
National Chengchi University professor Tsai Chia-hung (蔡佳泓) said the Mainland Affairs Council’s failure to propose an official version of the legislation raised questions about the government’s determination to push for its passage.
While the legislation to increase civic and legislative oversight of negotiations with China has been on the DPP’s list of “priority” legislation over the past several legislative sessions, official committee review has yet to be completed.
National Chengchi University law professor Lin Chia-ho (林佳和) said swift passage of the articles was particularly urgent because of a likely increase in pressure after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) finishes consolidating power at the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th National Party Congress this year.
“We are worried that without the protection of the articles to cancel out Chinese ‘united front’ efforts, international and big business pressure will eventually force the Tsai administration to sign some disadvantageous promises,” Chung Yuan University law professor Hsu Wei-chun (徐偉群) said.
“The international environment has provided breathing space for Taiwan, when we can have the advantage of not having to worry about any negotiations ‘burning our eyebrows’ as we are drafting the articles,” Chiou said, adding that failure to pass the articles this year would likely lead to them being put aside indefinitely due to local and national elections.
Tamkang University public administration professor Tu Yu-yin (涂予尹) said passage of the legislation was crucial to striking a balance between legislative and executive authority over negotiations, providing extra “bargaining chips” for talks with China.
Campaigners are to gather outside the Legislative Yuan on the anniversary of the Sunflower movement on Saturday next week to “demand an answer” regarding the passage of the articles, Hsu said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching