The pan-green camp yesterday criticized Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠) for his insistence on placing the controversial cross-strait service trade agreement on the legislative agenda on Thursday, saying that Chang’s plan would be a violation of party negotiations.
Despite negotiations convened by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) last week that reached a consensus that the screening of the pact would not take place before the final public hearings are held on March 10, Chang, joint convener of the Internal Administration Committee, expressed his intention to deal with the agreement this week.
“If Chang places the pact on the agenda, it would be a breach of party negotiations and I guarantee you an all-out war will break out in the legislature. The passage of the central government budget and the government reform legislation would be out of the question,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus secretary-general Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) told a press conference.
Gao said he suspected that Chang’s move either came from pressure applied by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) or by the Chinese Communist Party.
“I’m wondering whether the KMT wants to make the passage of the agreement a gift for the upcoming meeting between Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍). We won’t let that happen,” Gao added.
Wang Yu-chi and Zhang are scheduled to meet sometime after the Lunar New Year.
DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) had another theory, saying that Ma was looking to push through the agreement in an effort to embarrass Wang Jin-pyng after his failure to remove the legislative speaker in the so-called “September strife” political crisis.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) also voiced strong opposition to Chang’s plan, warning that the party would do anything, including bloodshed, to prevent the pact from being screened this week.
TSU caucus whip Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) echoed Huang Wei-cher’s concerns about pressure from Beijing.
“It’s particularly intriguing to us why Chang would risk violating a party consensus and go up against strong public opposition on his own. I suspect that tremendous pressure from Ma and Beijing is behind it,” Hsu said.
The TSU said that it would boycott the remaining legislative session if Chang insists on trying to push through the deal.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to