The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and other opposition groups announced yesterday that they have completed the first phase of a referendum procedure that would ask voters whether they supported an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China.
Following polls that show a deep divide over the controversial trade pact, the referendum call is an attempt to delay the government from signing the agreement in June.
TSU Chairperson Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said that overwhelming public support for its referendum drive — which is one month ahead of schedule — showed the government has not answered most of the public’s concerns.
PHOTO: PATRICK LIN, AFP
“There has been no communication from the government. The Taiwanese public does not even know what is going to be in the agreement,” Huang said. “[The government] left us with no choice … we can only use a referendum to show our opposition to an ECFA and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policies of selling out Taiwan.”
Of the nearly 200,000 signatures that party officials said they had already collected, 110,000 petition forms were delivered to the Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday afternoon for review.
The Referendum Act (公投法) stipulates that for the first phase of a referendum drive, organizers must collect information from at least 0.5 percent of eligible voters, meaning that of the 110,000 forms, 86,000 would have to be valid to initiate a referendum.
Officials from the CEC said that they have scheduled a committee meeting on May 4 to review the referendum petition, four days before it must either halt the referendum pending additional signatures or send it to the Executive Yuan’s Referendum Review Committee for further examination.
If approved by the review committee, organizers will need to collect a total of 860,000 signatures for the second phase of the referendum drive.
TSU Director Chou Ni-an (周倪安), one of the organizers, said that based on her projections, the referendum could be held together with the year-end special municipality elections.
In the meantime, she said, the government should wait until after the referendum before conducting further negotiations with China.
The government did not officially comment on the news yesterday, but Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) has said that the Ma administration does not oppose a referendum on an ECFA.
Organizers said the comments did not mean they would let their guard down, citing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers’ blockage on Tuesday of an opposition-sponsored bill that would have initiated a similar referendum, and the rejection of another ECFA referendum proposal last year by the Referendum Review Commission.
“We will avoid giving them another chance to reject this referendum,” Chou said.
Ma has made the ECFA one of his cornerstone policies, saying it could lead to stronger economic growth and increase the likelihood Taiwan can sign free trade agreements with other nations.
Opposition parties want to use the referendum to force the government to postpone or abandon an ECFA because of fears the trade pact will have a negative impact on jobs and Taiwan’s industries.
The Taiwan Thinktank has also raised concerns that the agreement could increase Taiwan’s economic dependence on China and cause white-collar salaries to drop.
Speaking in support of the referendum yesterday, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said any trade agreement between Taiwan and China should instead be conducted under the WTO framework.
“Free Trade Agreements [under the WTO] are the mark of a sovereign country, but an ECFA is a trade agreement between central and local governments, and that’s where Taiwan’s problems are,” Lee said.
In a rare public appearance, he also cautioned that an ECFA, if signed, could be a stepping stone to eventual unification with China.
“President Ma and his administration are not clueless; they know what China is doing. Yet, they are still cooperating with the Chinese government to first trap Taiwan economically and then to walk the road to unification,” Lee said.
“We don’t want to see this ... we want Taiwan’s future to be decided by Taiwanese,” he said.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
RSS