The legislature yesterday ratified the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) after a showdown that saw all the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus’ motions voted down by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) majority.
The vote took place after more than 10 hours of clause-by-clause deliberation, with KMT and DPP lawmakers taking the floor in turn to speak for and against the ECFA.
Yesterday was the first day of the second provisional session of the summer recess initiated by the KMT caucus to have the legislature ratify the ECFA that Taiwan signed with China on June 29.
PHOTO: CNA
Describing the ECFA as the “most important treaty” Taiwan had signed since World War II in terms of its negative impact on the nation’s sovereignty, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said his caucus had done its best to warn against the agreement.
“The ECFA was a product of the KMT cooperating with the Chinese Communist Party in bringing Taiwan under the control of China economically, moving toward eventual unification,” Ker said.
The vote proceeded smoothly after the KMT caucus and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, initially having insisted on a single vote for the entire ECFA as a package, on Monday agreed to allow motions for revision of the ECFA on an individual basis.
The vote started at 9:20pm. Holding just 33 seats in the 112-seat legislature, the DPP failed in each of its 18 motions.
DPP lawmakers then shouted anti-ECFA slogans, saying the agreement was signed under the “one China” principle.
The KMT caucus, meanwhile, proceeded with its motion to vote for the accord as a whole package.
KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) hailed the passage of the ECFA, saying its implementation would ensure the country’s economic prosperity for 50 or 60 years.
KMT Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) said “China downgraded itself” to sign the accord in the name of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, rather than its official name, in order to help boost Taiwan’s economy.
Upset with the decision, pro-independence advocates gathered outside the legislature cried foul and said the agreement would subject Taiwan to growing Chinese interference.
Holding placards and chanting anti-government slogans, around 50 activists had gathered outside the legislature hours before the vote, saying the review was flawed.
Leading the group, National Taiwan University professor Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) said the ECFA would “strip Taiwanese people of everything and was an abuse of the people’s rights.”
To prove his point, he stripped off, along with four other activists.
Other activists climbed onto the legislature’s main gate, shouting the ECFA would leave Taiwan with no future and that it should be put to a referendum. Some painted themselves with green paint, saying that the agreement “raped Taiwan.
Although protestors verbally clashed with police at one point in the evening, no scuffles broke out between the group and police.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS