Activists from various groups yesterday protested against a visit by the Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Chairman Chen Deming (陳德銘) over concerns about the negative impact of the cross-strait service trade agreement.
Protesters from the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and civic groups followed Chen, who arrived in Taipei yesterday for an eight-day visit, at every stop, including the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and the Strait Exchange Foundation’s (SEF) headquarters.
“Any cross-strait trade agreement should be transparent, monitored by the legislature and the public and not to be handled by unofficial organizations such as the SEF,” said Chen Ting-hao (陳廷豪), spokesperson of the Black Island National Youth Front, which is largely comprised of university students.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
“We oppose the trade mechanism, including the service trade pact, the soon-to-be-completed trade in goods agreement and the free economic pilot zones. They will only benefit large enterprises and harm local sectors,” he added.
The Black Island National Youth Front demanded that the government suspend the negotiations on a trade in goods agreement with Beijing until the principle of reciprocal and fairness is ensured.
The group’s views reflected widespread concerns by the opposition and various business sectors, which say that Beijing and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration intend to push the service trade pact through the Legislative Yuan as soon as possible and that Chen Deming’s visit was likely a form of Chinese pressure.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
The wave of protests began at about noon, with a group of students, TSU members and Falun Gong practitioners shouting slogans and holding placards and banners when Chen Deming appeared at the airport.
A student broke through police lines and got close to Chen Deming at the exit, but was taken away by officers. More than 100 officers had been deployed at the airport.
Chen Deming was greeted by SEF Vice Chairman Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) at the airport, and attended a luncheon hosted by Taoyuan County Commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) while protesters were blocked outside the terminal.
He and his delegation later visited a free-trade harbor zone at the planned Taoyuan Aerotropolis project and the Taipei harbor, and then met with SEF Chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森) in the foundation’s building, where protesters were waiting outside.
There was a brief scuffle between protesters and police outside the building.
“The service trade agreement was a collaboration between the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] and the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] to hollow out Taiwan service industry’s competitiveness,” several TSU members said.
Chen Deming, who has visited Taiwan before, said he looks forward to experiencing the nation’s beauty and great food.
As China continues to open its markets and facilitate the reform of the economic system, he said businesses from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should enjoy more opportunities and create more profits.
While his trip was aimed at promoting economic and trade cooperation between Taiwan and China and seeking cooperation opportunities, the SEF and the ARATS can also take the occasion to engage in follow-up negotiations on the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), he said.
“The most important task across the Taiwan Strait is to promote the main items of the ECFA, including the early harvest list, investment protection, service trade, goods trade and dispute settlement. We should continue to work on it,” he said.
Taiwan’s free economic pilot zones, a project under which six harbors and the planned Taoyuan Aerotropolis will be designated as models of liberation, are the focus of Chen Deming’s trip.
Chen Deming’s delegation is to visit Pingtung County and Greater Kaohsiung today, then travel to Greater Tainan, Chiayi County, Greater Taichung and Hsinchu County, before returning to Taipei and New Taipei City (新北市).
Senior KMT members, including former vice president and KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) will meet with Chen Deming during his trip.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said he would also meet with the Chinese official and seek business opportunities for businesses in Taipei.
COMMITMENT: The world’s biggest contract chipmaker said that its new 2nm chips, as well as next-generation, cutting-edge 1.4nm chips, will be produced in Taiwan Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that the majority of its most advanced chips would continue to be manufactured in Taiwan and that it is boosting advanced chip packaging capacity to catch up with fast-growing demand driven by generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications like ChatGPT. Deeply rooted in Taiwan, TSMC is expanding production capacity for its most advanced 3-nanometer (nm) chips at its Tainan fab and is building new plants to produce new 2-nanometer chips in Hsinchu and Taichung in 2025. The chipmaker also plans to produce next-generation, cutting-edge 1.4-nanometer chips, which are currently under development, at home, it
PASSAGE DISPUTE: A US and Canadian transit was a provocation and an attempt to ‘exercise hegemony of navigation,’ China’s defense ministry told a forum in Singapore The Ministry of National Defense yesterday urged the Chinese Communist Party to avoid provocative behavior after a Chinese navy ship crossed the paths of a US destroyer and Canadian frigate transiting the Taiwan Strait. A Chinese ship on Saturday “executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner in the vicinity of [the USS] Chung-Hoon,” an American destroyer, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement. The vessel “overtook Chung-Hoon on their port side and crossed their bow at 150 yards [137m]. Chung-Hoon maintained course and slowed to 10 [knots, 18.5kph] to avoid a collision,” the statement said. It then “crossed Chung-Hoon’s bow a second time
HARD-WON FREEDOM: Beijing’s 1989 crackdown on protesters has not been and should not be forgotten, as China tightens its grip on Hong Kong, Lai said Taiwanese enjoy democracy and freedom and have multiple ways to express their creativity, and hopefully young people in China would also one day have the freedom to sing and express themselves, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Yesterday was the 34th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s bloody crackdown on student-led protests in Beijing in 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident. Tsai posted a photograph taken in March in a subway station in Guizhou, China, where hundreds of young people gathered to sing People With No Ideals Don’t Get Hurt (沒有理想的人不傷心), saying that they
GUILTY AS CHARGED: Chen Hsueh-sheng repeatedly pressed his belly against a DPP lawmaker and made derogatory remarks when confronted over his behavior The Taipei District Court yesterday upheld a verdict against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生), finding him liable for sexually harassing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) during a physical altercation on the legislative floor in 2020. The DPP lawmaker accused Chen of pressing his belly against her back three times in a sexually suggestive manner during a scuffle between lawmakers from both parties. Chen must pay Fan NT$80,000 in damages as stipulated by a summary ruling of the district court at the first trial, the court said in a news release. The verdict is final as the
RSS