Sat, Oct 17, 2009 page3

• Pro-independence groups fight economic pact

  • Loa Iok-sin / STAFF REPORTER
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  Worried that the government’s plan to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China may signal a disaster for local industries, more than 160 pro-independence groups yesterday launched a grassroots campaign to tell the public more about the planned trade pact.

  “Because of the government’s China-leaning policies, Taiwanese are now faced with many challenges and crises — we are gradually losing our identity, our sovereignty and our economic independence,” Soochow University political science professor Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), who is also a member of the campaign, told a news conference yesterday. “Our county-by-county, city-by-city campaign is to make people aware of and know more about the crisis we’re facing.”

  A 34-minute documentary focusing on closer economic exchange with China as the cause of Taiwan’s economic crisis was also shown at the news conference.

  The campaigners plan to show the film at each of the country’s 319 townships and cities and talk face-to-face to the public about the crisis.

  In the film, employees and leaders of industries that have been most seriously hit by accelerated economic exchanges with China — including the textile industry and the agricultural sector — as well as economists were interviewed, recounted their stories and expressed their worries about the future once the ECFA is signed.

  “There used to be over 7,000 bedding manufacturers around, but more than 5,000 have closed for business since the dumping of cheap Chinese-made products on the Taiwanese market began,” Huang Kuang-yi (黃光藝), owner of a bedding factory, said in the video. “When manufacturers like us are closed, our employees lose their jobs and that leads to a big social problem.”

  Chang Hsin-hsin, a tour guide, recalled how the tourism industry was hopeful when the government allowed Chinese tourists to come directly to Taiwan more than a year ago.

  “[To attract Chinese tourists], we’ve been seriously cutting costs and trying to hang in there because we thought we would eventually make big money,” she said in the video. “But now both Taiwanese and Chinese travel agencies are suffering — I don’t know who actually made big money from it?”

  Huang Kun-pin (黃崑濱) — better known as “Uncle Kun-pin” (崑濱伯) after he appeared in a documentary on farmers in 2004, said in the film that the dumping of cheap Chinese agricultural produce has killed hopes for farmers.

  “In the past, when our crops were destroyed by a typhoon, we would remain hopeful that maybe in the next season we would have a big harvest and earn everything back,” he said.

  “But if cheap produce from China keeps coming, I don’t know where our hope is,” Huang said.

  National Taiwan University economics professor and Taiwan Thinktank chairman Chen Po-chih (陳博志) pointed out in the video his view that the government only tells half of the story.

  “Yes, with closer ties, we may sell more stuff there, but China would sell even more stuff to Taiwan,” he said. “China now sells five times more fruit to Taiwan than Taiwan to China.”

  After the screening, Northern Taiwan Society vice president Wang Mei-siou (王美琇) said she had helped make the documentary and take part in organizing the campaign because she felt that she was “having a hard time to even breathe as a Taiwanese.”

  “We, as citizens, must speak up for ourselves, be more aggressive and talk to others about our concerns to stop the government from selling out Taiwan piece by piece,” she said. “Only the power of the people can save Taiwan.”
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