Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Chairman Chen Deming’s (陳德銘) eight-day visit to Taiwan starting today is an affront to Taiwanese sovereignty and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should cancel the visit immediately, the pan-green camp said yesterday.
Chen’s group, including ARATS officials and Chinese business leaders, will focus on Taiwan’s “free economic pilot zones,” a project under which six harbors and the planned Taoyuan Aerotropolis will be designated as models of liberalization.
The pan-green camp is concerned that the project will spur a mass influx of Chinese white--collar workers, Chinese agricultural products and investment in local businesses previously off-limits to Chinese capital.
Chen’s group will visit Pingtung County and Greater Kaohsiung tomorrow, then travel north, stopping in Greater Tainan, Chiayi County, Greater Taichung and Hsinchu County, finally returning to Taipei and New Taipei City (新北市).
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) held a press conference in which it alleged that Chen’s visit was aimed at applying political pressure on Taiwan’s economy and attempting to force Ma’s hand on the cross-strait service trade agreement and the free economic pilot zones.
Chen’s visit under the guise of “economic interaction” is not so simple a matter, TSU caucus whip Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) said.
His plan to visit the Taoyuan Aerotropolis, Taipei Harbor, Greater Taichung Harbor, Greater Kaohsiung Harbor and the Pingtung Biological and Agricultural Science Park, designated as free economic pilot zones, indicated Chinese pressure on the Ma administration to expedite the project and the cross-strait service trade agreement.
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said that Taiwan has its own laws, and all accords or treaties with foreign nations must be supported by the public before they can be ratified by the Legislative Yuan.
“We hope that Chen will not try to tell Taiwan what to do when he visits,” Huang said.
TSU deputy whip Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲) also said that Chen’s arrival drew more Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials to visit him than Ma, including former KMT vice president Lien Chan (連戰) and former KMT chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄), former Straits Exchange Foundation chairman (SEF) Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), as well as People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and the owners of large firms, such as Want Want and Foxconn.
It is evident that Ma’s influence over cross-strait policy is waning fast and that corporations are beginning to sideline the Ma administration, she said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) echoed the TSU’s sentiments and called on people to protest Chen’s visit.
Gao called for the government to cancel Chen’s visit as a protest against China’s demarcation of an East China Sea air defense identification zone (ADIZ), which is a serious affront to Taiwanese sovereignty.
Meanwhile, in answer to the call to shadow Chen’s entourage for the duration of his visit and show Chen how strongly Taiwanese resent the cross-strait service trade agreement and the setting up of the economic free pilot zones, the Black Island National Youth Front yesterday said that it would be greeting Chen at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport today at 11am.
The group said that it hoped to show Chen how Taiwanese resent Chinese influence on Taiwanese politics, how the public opposes the cross-strait service trade agreement and how Taiwanese resolutely oppose the free economic pilot zones, which would greatly hurt Taiwan’s agriculture and job market.
Additional reporting by Lo Tien-pin, Chen Tzu-wen, and CNA
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai