The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) is using an online game on the social networking Web site Facebook to try to boost public support for a proposed trade agreement with China, which it hopes to sign next month.
The MAC said an online game titled ECFA (economic cooperation framework agreement) Negotiation Table will be launched on Monday as an application on the Facebook platform.
The quiz-based game will test registered users on their knowledge of the deal and provide weekly rewards.
“The idea is to let users understand more about the content of the proposal through game-playing,” MAC Deputy Chairman Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said.
The trade agreement aims to relax trade regulations between Taiwan and China and reduce tariffs on Taiwan and China’s exports to each other’s markets.
According to the MAC’s latest public opinion poll released on May 7, 53.1 percent of respondents said they supported the deal, while 33.4 percent said they opposed signing the agreement.
Supporters of the deal believe it is necessary to keep Taiwan from becoming economically marginalized as other countries sign free-trade agreements with China.
Critics, however, say Taiwan’s workers and industries would suffer once cheaper Chinese products flood in, that Taiwan’s sovereignty would be jeopardized and that Taiwan would become too economically dependent on China.
In order to gain more public support for the deal, the MAC decided to capitalize on the power of the Internet.
Facebook, which was named the second-most popular site in Taiwan’s Top 100 Web sites in an annual survey by Business Next magazine, became a natural choice.
In Taiwan, the social networking Web site has more than 5 million users — about half of the total Internet users nationwide.
Users in the government’s game will be able to select different roles they want to play in the eight-week game and are asked to answer three questions about the ECFA each day to collect points that can be used in exchange for prizes.
They can receive extra points by inviting friends to join the game, the council said.
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