The Legislative Yuan should initiate the final steps to abolish the Taiwan Provincial Government to follow up on a planned elimination of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, protesters said yesterday.
About a dozen members affiliated with the Economic Democracy Union and several other groups protested outside a Legislative Yuan side gate to demand that the Provincial Government’s budget be eliminated during the upcoming legislative session, followed by formal legal amendments to legislate it out of existence next year.
They also called for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to make abolishing the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) a platform plank during the next round of legislative elections.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“We hope to make the sovereign power of Taiwanese collide with our Republic of China Constitution,” union spokesman Chien Nien-yu (簡年佑) said. “Legal changes by the Legislative Yuan can challenge inappropriate constitutional restrictions and create new energy for a new constitution or sweeping reform.”
The Republic of China Constitution was adopted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government in Nanjing in 1947, with amendments restricting its application to the nation’s “free area” following the KMT’s defeat in the Chinese Civil War.
The Constitution mandates the existence of a provincial government while allowing for legislation to define its specific function and organization.
In practice, the provincial government has been “frozen” and largely non-functional since 1998, when it was drastically downsized.
Protesters yesterday compared it to an “appendix.”
“Even though the provincial government has been frozen for almost 20 years, it still employees more than 100 people across several different bodies, while wasting NT$240 million [US$7.98 million] in taxpayer dollars last year,” said union secretary-general Chen Kuan-yu (陳冠宇), who also announced plans to burn a pile of paper “gold ingots” at a vigil at Liberty Square on Monday night.
Protesters said the vigil date was selected because it corresponded with the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area.
“It would not be enough just to amend the act to change references to ‘mainland area’ to ‘China’ and references to the ‘Taiwan area’ to ‘our country,’” Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said, calling for restrictions on executive power to regulate Chinese trade and investment.
“The key characteristic of the act is numerous blank checks allowing the executive branch to do as it pleases on a variety of issues where they should be governed by specific laws,” Lai said.
The law should be replaced with a China Relations Act in the medium term to allow transition for articles governing behavior of Chinese citizens to be written into individual legislative acts to mirror passages “for foreigners.”
“Right now, Chinese are legally considered special nationals of the Republic of China, but we want to change that to their being considered special foreigners,” he said, adding that his group does not advocate using a referendum to abolish the act.
Referendums have “more important uses,” he said.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all