The controversial cross-strait service trade agreement was sent to the Legislative Yuan’s plenary session yesterday without a single minute of deliberation in a joint committee review meeting that was marred by physical and verbal confrontations among pan-blue and pan-green camp lawmakers as both sides accused each other of lacking “democratic maturity.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) lawmakers had occupied the meeting room’s podium since noon yesterday and prevented Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠) from presiding over the meeting, which was called off after three hours without actually commencing.
“Chang had no choice but to announce the conclusion of the meeting and send the pact to the plenary, as the legislative committee had failed to screen the agreement within the required time of three months,” KMT caucus whip Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) told a press conference after the meeting.
Photo: CNA
As the screening of the pact would be deemed complete after one day, the scheduled three-day review will not be held tomorrow and on Thursday, Lin said.
Lawmakers from both sides spent the time allotted to the meeting chanting slogans and taking verbal jabs at each other.
DPP lawmakers, led by Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉), and Chang briefly got into a physical confrontation.
Chang was reluctant to make the decision to send the pact to the plenary session because the DPP had been blocking the proceeding, but the decision was legal, Lin said, adding that Chang was tackled to the ground by DPP lawmakers when he was trying to convene the meeting.
The DPP refused to acknowledge the legality of the KMT’s unilateral decision, as Chang did not make his announcement on the podium and no one heard what he said, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said at a separate news conference.
In response to the KMT’s violation of a previously reached inter-party consensus that the deal must be reviewed clause-by-clause in the Legislative Yuan, DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said the DPP caucus would boycott the plenary session today, adding that the DPP would not rule out other measures to “paralyze” the legislature.
Even if the agreement is successfully sent to the plenary session for its second reading, the opposition lawmakers have the right to review it line-by-line as per previous consensus, Chen said.
Yesterday marked the third day that the joint committee review made no progress following a two-day review session convened by Chen Chi-mai last week.
The KMT caucus, which said the DPP’s boycott yesterday was “unacceptable,” disrupted the meeting last week.
Because the DPP did not recognize the legality of yesterday’s meeting, Chen said he would try to convene another review meeting next week.
The KMT’s reasoning for sending the pact to the plenary was incorrect, Chen said, as current regulations only stipulated that executive orders that fail to complete a committee review within three months of the plenary session be assigned to the committee.
“The agreement is not an executive order,” Chen said.
DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) issued press releases condemning the KMT’s handling of the meeting, with Su saying that the party would not accept the KMT’s breach of consensus.
Tsai said the KMT has put the nation’s democratic system in jeopardy and called on Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to resolve the dispute as soon as possible.
IN A HURRY: The 199,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine expire on May 31, so the CECC might expand vaccine eligibility, but distribution would begin in a week at the earliest The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines allocated to Taiwan through the COVAX global vaccine-sharing program arrived yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said, adding that, after testing, it would be able to distribute them by Monday next week at the earliest. The 199,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were shipped from Amsterdam on a China Airlines (中華航空) plane and arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5:21am. After the cargo was examined and release procedures were completed at the airport, the Aviation Police Bureau escorted the vehicles carrying the vaccines to a cold chain storage facility. Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General
HEATED TRAFFIC: As Beijing holds naval drills near Taiwan, the Ministry of National Defense said it had a full grasp of the situation and would handle it ‘appropriately’ A Chinese carrier group exercising near Taiwan is part of what are to be regular drills, the Chinese navy said in a statement late on Monday, further escalating tensions between Taipei and Beijing. The group, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, was conducting “routine” drills in the waters around Taiwan, a move to “enhance its capability to safeguard national sovereignty, safety and development interests,” the statement said. “Similar exercises will be conducted regularly,” it said, without elaborating. The statement came after the Ministry of National Defense earlier on Monday issued a statement regarding a rise in the number of incursions by Chinese jets into
AIMED AT TAIWAN? Institute for National Defense and Security Research research fellow Ou Si-fu said chips can be ‘bought off the shelf’ and then used in weapons The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday said that chips from Taiwanese semiconductor companies were not making their way into Chinese missiles “to the best of our knowledge.” A report in yesterday’s Washington Post alleged that a Chinese company named Phytium Technology Co (飛騰) used chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), along with US software, in advanced Chinese military systems. “TSMC has long placed strict controls on their chips. The export of high-tech products from Taiwan is also highly regulated,” Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said. “According to our understanding, none of the end uses for those products
NO TIME: The driver tried to apply the brakes when he saw the truck, but the train did not have time to come to a full stop, an investigation report said The crane truck that caused last week’s fatal train accident had slid onto the tracks about one-and-a-half minutes before it was struck, the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board said yesterday. The board had launched an investigation into the derailment, which killed 50 people and injured 211 people, making it the nation’s most devastating railway accident in decades. Carrying 494 passengers and four Taiwan Railways Administration personnel, the southbound express train to Taitung hit the truck as it was about to enter the Cingshuei Tunnel (清水隧道) in Hualien’s Sioulin Township (秀林). The train derailed following the collision, with the left side of the eighth
RSS