On Sept. 25 the Cabinet passed amendments to the Statute Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (
The proposed amendments would also not allow those traveling between Taiwan and China to have dual citizenship. Furthermore, direct trade would be opened up in accordance with WTO regulations, Chinese companies would be allowed to publish advertisements in Taiwan under certain conditions and academic cooperation would be permitted between schools on both sides. Safeguards would also be established for the rights and interests of teachers who teach children of Taiwanese businesspeople in China.
While we recognize the efforts of the Cabinet to pragmatically put forth these amendments to cope with environmental changes and take care of people's rights and interests, it is our biggest regret that the amendments fail to touch upon the issue of direct links.
Considering that direct links with China are closely related to Taiwan's economic development, opposition parties proposed in June to amend laws to ease restrictions on direct links. They had planned to immediately vote on the proposal, but the Mainland Affairs Council demanded a delay of the vote, reasoning that a complete version of the amendments should be advanced first.
The MAC reached an agreement with both the DPP and opposition caucuses by promising it would send the draft amendments to the legislature for review before the second legislative session began in September. And the draft bill was to have been given priority in the session and three readings were to have been completed by the end of November. The MAC also pledged to establish the small three links between Penghu and China by early September on a case-by-case basis.
But now, in October, the check for Penghu's small three links has bounced. Moreover, the MAC did not amend the regulations regarding direct links in its amendments. The partisan negotiation had focused on direct links and the MAC's promise was exchanged for the parties' agreement that they wouldn't vote on transportation links in the legislature. But now the MAC's amendments have only added regulations on the management of foreign ships and aircraft, without a word mentioned on direct links. This deliberate breach of its promise might sow the seeds of partisan conflicts in this legislative session.
Is it necessary to amend the statute in a bid to relax restrictions on direct links? The MAC, the authority in charge, frequently claims that there is no need to revise the law since the current legal structure is capable of dealing with the issue. It is correct in terms of law, but not in terms of policy. Articles 28 to 32, which regulate cross-strait shipping and foreign ships and aircraft all stipulate that "No craft shall sail/fly ... without permission from the authorities concerned," and that "Permission regulations are drafted by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications along with relevant government agencies and promulgated after being filed to the Cabinet for ratification."
On the surface of things, this is allowed by law, but the problem is that if the authority in charge does not formulate regulations allowing it, it is prohibited. This is true both for cross-strait transportation links and for the "control, approval and acceptance of mainland educational records" mentioned in Article 22. The original purpose behind this kind of "commissioned legislation" was to give the administrative authority flexibility in granting permission according to the actual needs of the objective situation so as to avoid having to go through tedious and long legislative processes.
The statute was promulgated in September 1992, however, and in recent years, there have been great changes in the environment. In particular, more than a decade of observations by Taiwanese businesspeople of the shattering speed of economic development in China has left a deep impression. The authorities in charge, however, have not further investigated these matters, therefore causing great dissatisfaction among both DPP and opposition legislators, who have begun discussing revisions to the law and setting deadlines on the opening of direct links.
Looking at the issue from the perspective of MAC's political failure, I am afraid that all permissive regulations in the statute will become "prohibitive" as a result of the government's procrastination in drafting permission regulations.
Many observers believe that the MAC plans to defend itself using the current articles, which already bestow the right to make decisions on the administrative authority in order for it to manage cross-strait transportation links. This means, strategically speaking, that the MAC's evaluation is that if it cannot withstand legislative pressure for a revision to the law, it will agree to revise the juridically lesser work regulations regarding the establishment of an off-shore transportation center and allow goods from these centers to pass through customs.
If this is true, it is sufficient to show that the MAC is unintentionally working toward government by the rule of law when it comes to the question of direct cross-strait transportation links. Full two-way opening up of offshore transportation centers and allowing their goods through customs was decided upon by the Economic Development Advisory Conference (EDAC) in August last year. It has still not been fully implemented, but instead it has been turned into a pawn in the internal discussions regarding the opening up of direct transportation links. This leaves a feeling that meetings are a formality, and that once the moment is gone, the decision will become waste paper.
In a report published in May, the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) points out that among the 300 items on which the EDAC reached a consensus, AmCham sees the direct links between Taiwan and China as the most important factor for development in Taiwan. AmCham also points out that a lack of efficiency and excessive controls are seen by foreign businesspeople in Taiwan as the two main government obstacles.
On Sept. 23, the American Institute in Taiwan Director Douglas H. Paal also made it clear that a delay in direct cross-strait links will lead to a decline in Taiwan's relative competitiveness. The slow progress in direct cross-strait transportation has caused over a hundred AmCham members to move to China. Paal's position is nothing new, but it indeed reflects the urgency of direct cross-strait transportation links.
In May last year, President Chen Shui-bian (
More than a year has gone by, and we still see no government actions in this direction.We eagerly hope that the authorities in charge are able to concretely implement Chen's economic strategy and actively negotiate and plan a way to realize direct cross-strait transportation links.
"When the law functions, people follow the law. When the law does not function, the law follows the people." If legal standards cannot meet real needs, I'm afraid they will only bring new restrictions and diminish the economic competitiveness of Taiwanese business.
Kao Koong-lian is a professor at Chung-yuan Christian University and a former first vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council.
Translated by Perry Svensson and Jackie Lin
Chinese Consul General in Osaka Xue Jian (薛劍) on Saturday last week shared a news article on social media about Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks on Taiwan, adding that “the dirty neck that sticks itself in must be cut off.” The previous day in the Japanese House of Representatives, Takaichi said that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute “a situation threatening Japan’s survival,” a reference to a legal legal term introduced in 2015 that allows the prime minister to deploy the Japan Self-Defense Forces. The violent nature of Xue’s comments is notable in that it came from a diplomat,
China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, entered service this week after a commissioning ceremony in China’s Hainan Province on Wednesday last week. Chinese state media reported that the Fujian would be deployed to the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea and the western Pacific. It seemed that the Taiwan Strait being one of its priorities meant greater military pressure on Taiwan, but it would actually put the Fujian at greater risk of being compromised. If the carrier were to leave its home port of Sanya and sail to the East China Sea or the Yellow Sea, it would have to transit the
The artificial intelligence (AI) boom, sparked by the arrival of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, took the world by storm. Within weeks, everyone was talking about it, trying it and had an opinion. It has transformed the way people live, work and think. The trend has only accelerated. The AI snowball continues to roll, growing larger and more influential across nearly every sector. Higher education has not been spared. Universities rushed to embrace this technological wave, eager to demonstrate that they are keeping up with the times. AI literacy is now presented as an essential skill, a key selling point to attract prospective students.
A Chinese diplomat’s violent threat against Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi following her remarks on defending Taiwan marks a dangerous escalation in East Asian tensions, revealing Beijing’s growing intolerance for dissent and the fragility of regional diplomacy. Chinese Consul General in Osaka Xue Jian (薛劍) on Saturday posted a chilling message on X: “the dirty neck that sticks itself in must be cut off,” in reference to Takaichi’s remark to Japanese lawmakers that an attack on Taiwan could threaten Japan’s survival. The post, which was later deleted, was not an isolated outburst. Xue has also amplified other incendiary messages, including one suggesting
RSS