The Taiwanese Businessmen Victims Association called on China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) to see that Beijing strictly adheres to the cross-strait Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement (海峽兩岸投資保障和促進協議) and said they would shadow Zhang when he visits Taiwan to make sure their point gets across.
The agreement is part of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed in 2010.
It was a clarification on definition of investors, the conditional approach of investment, guarantees on safety and individual freedom of investors, transparent and logical appropriation of property and compensation, and the availability of multiple channels of solutions.
The association said many Taiwanese businesspeople have been oppressed by Beijing and that their rights were violated.
The association called on Beijing to implement protection policies, adding that it has prepared 18 skits to show Zhang when they shadow him.
The association cited the Huan Yu Group case in 2008 as an example of how the Chinese government oppressed Taiwanese businesspeople.
According to media Web site New Talk, the Huan Yu Group was founded by several Taiwanese businesspeople along with Singaporean businessman Wu Zhenshun (吳振順). One of the more prominent members is the brother of a former legislator surnamed Tsai (蔡).
The company had begun to develop the Binhai District (濱海) after signing contracts on land investment and development with the Qingdao City government in Shandong Province in 1993, and by 1998 they had acquired the rights to develop 105,323.3m2 of land, the report said.
The report quoted company spokesman Huang Yueh-chao (黃越超) as saying the company had invested US$100 million to US$200 million on 503 hectares of land in 2003, which is about 100 million yuan, the equivalent of NT$50 billion in market value at the time.
However, the company complained that since 2001 the Qingdao City assistant, doubling as Laoshan District (嶗山) secretary-general, Wang Yan (王雁) had sold off 165 hectares of land in the area, while in 2003 a tract of land worth about 500 million yuan had been sold to Qingdao Sage Group in a directional bidding for only 39.8 million yuan, the report said.
Huang said that they had asked then-secretary-general of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Lin Feng-cheng (林豐正) to mediate in the dispute.
While the Shandong Provincial Government had signed a contact promising to recompense the group for 1 billion yuan last year, after paying 500 million yuan it reneged on the contract, invoking debtor’s right on the remaining 500 million yuan through a state-owned corporation, according to the report.
The report quoted Huang as saying that Wu had also been arrested on May 18, 2004, after some sources reported to Beijing that he had a small army that were within 10 minutes of Beijing.
Although Wu was eventually released without charges, the company’s holdings had been put on sale by the local government, the report quoted Huang as saying.
Nearly two years after the investment protection agreement has been signed, and the Chinese government official in question is on the death row, the company has only received 5 percent, or NT$2.5 billion, of the total of NT$50 billion invested in the venture in compensation, the report said.
Although Article 3 in the agreement states that actions “should be in accordance with fairness, non-discriminatory, and just legal proceedings,” it is evident that Chinese local governments are completely disregarding the implementation of the agreement, Huang said in the report.
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
NINTH MONTH: There were 11,792 births in Taiwan last month and 15,563 deaths, or a mortality rate of 8.11 per 1,000 people, household registration data showed Taiwan’s population was 23,404,138 as of last month, down 2,470 from August, the ninth consecutive month this year that the nation has reported a drop, the Ministry of the Interior said on Wednesday. The population last month was 162 fewer than the same month last year, a decline of 0.44 per day, the ministry said, citing household registration data. Taiwan reported 11,792 births last month, or 3.7 births per day, up 149 from August, it said, adding that the monthly birthrate was 6.15 per 1,000 people. The jurisdictions with the highest birthrates were Yunlin County at 14.62 per 1,000 people, Penghu County (8.61
RSS