The Economic Democracy Union yesterday urged the government to establish regulatory control measures for Shopee capital to deter Chinese economic influence in Taiwan.
Civic groups are calling for Shopee to commission licensed electronic payment services to handle all transactions on its platform, as the current situation is unfair to certified services and the platform lacks consumer guarantees, Economic Democracy Union researcher Hsu Kuan-tze (許冠澤) said.
The Investment Commission’s performance cannot compete with the US Committee on Foreign Investment, which plays a critical role in overseeing US national and economic security, union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Despite the success of the 2014 Sunflower movement in blocking a controversial cross-strait service trade agreement, Chinese investors are still able to enter Taiwan, piggy-backing on Hong Kong or foreign investments, and undermine Taiwan’s economic autonomy, he said.
Lai attributed the persistent Chinese presence in Taiwan’s economy to incomplete legal protections, citing the Legislative Yuan’s unwillingness to amend 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) and the Financial Supervisory Commission’s inaction regarding the amendment of investment laws.
The Investment Commission is full of people who used to work under Tsai Lian-sheng (蔡練生) and Fan Liang-tung (范良棟), both of whom serve as deputy secretaries-general on the Cross-strait CEO Summit, which is an important part of China’s economic “united front” rhetoric, Lai said.
The Executive Yuan should issue an executive order banning Investment Commission members from being in contact with Tsai or Fan, effective immediately, he said.
Taiwan Citizen Front member Lo Yi (羅宜) said that Shopee’s expansion is an attempt to monopolize all electronic commerce, payments and logistics for basic necessities.
The moment Shopee began establishing physical stores and moving from the Cloud was the day that Chinese investment successfully “breached” Taiwan, she said.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
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The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
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