Three opposition lawmakers said yesterday that they will lead a delegation to Beijing on July 20 to negotiate with Chinese authorities in a bid to get them to lift their ban on Chinese fishermen working for Taiwan fishing companies. But the Taiwan government said that the lawmakers would be interfering with its authority if they do so.
PFP lawmaker Tsao Yuan-jang (曹原彰), PFP lawmaker Cheng Mei-lan (鄭美蘭), and KMT lawmaker Kwan Yuk-noan (關沃暖) held a news briefing yesterday to announce that they would hold talks on the matter with China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS, 海協會) later this month.
Tsao is chairman of a non-profit cross-strait affairs association which offers services to citizens requiring assistance in connection with trips to China or liaisons with the country. Cheng and Kwan are close political allies of Tsao.
China has banned its fishermen from working for Taiwan's fishing companies since February -- accusing Taiwan of treating the laborers badly. China cited as an example of bad treatment the fact that the fishermen have to live on floating dormitories that had been converted from fishing vessels.
Tsao says the ban has seriously influenced Taiwan's fishing industry, because most of the industry's laborers are from China.
"Because China banned its fishermen from working for Taiwan companies, currently around 5000 fishing boats are lying idle in the harbors due to the lack of fishermen," Cheng echoed.
But the director of the MAC's Department of Legal Affairs, Jeff Yang (楊家駿), told the Taipei Times that by negotiating with the Chinese on the issue, the lawmakers would be interfering with government functions and that it would be "quite impossible for them to reach a valid agreement with Beijing" since they are not authorized by the government to do so.
"People who wish to resolve the problem should be authorized by the government to do so," Yang stressed, adding that "we continue to negotiate with China over the matter via various channels."
In addition, an official from the Fisheries Administration of the Council of Agriculture, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Taipei Times that Taiwan is seeking to recruit fishermen from countries such as Vietnam to avoid over-reliance on Chinese fishermen.
He said that, since China started banning its fishermen from coming to Taiwan, 1000 fishermen from Vietnam and other countries had come to Taiwan to help make up the shortage. "The government has provided advantages for such laborers to attract them to come to Taiwan by giving subsidies of NT$3000 per person per month."
"We wish to diversify the human resources for Taiwan's fishing industry -- and it is working. We don't have to always rely on Chinese fishermen," the official said.
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