Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Pact laced with China’s ambitions

Eric Chiou 邱奕宏

From various perspectives, the Sunflower movement led by Taiwanese students has created a monument in the nation’s democratic history. In response to the unprecedented rally, which involved hundreds of thousands of people peacefully gathering on Sunday last week to protest against the cross-strait service trade agreement, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration reluctantly consented to some of the students’ appeals and released an oversight bill to monitor future agreements with China.

Nevertheless, an incompatible divergence between the students and the government has not been defused, since this oversight draft will not apply to the service trade pact, which is the focus of discord between the protesters and the government.

Wang vows monitoring law before pact

Taipei Times

Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, center, greets protesters while visiting the Legislative Yuan with lawmakers from both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Pichi Chuang, Reuters

Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) promised yesterday to enact a law monitoring Taiwan’s pacts with China before the legislature reviews the controversial cross-strait service trade agreement.

The move was welcomed by the student activists, but they have yet to decide whether to withdraw from the legislative compound.

Wang made the announcement during a high-profile visit to the student protesters on the occupied legislative chamber, but prior to entering the room, he held a press conference saying that he has never shunned the responsibility for mediating the conflicts between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over the pact’s handling.

Signing of trade pact not imperative

Taipei Times Editorial

In the nine months since the cross-strait service trade pact was signed, the government has repeatedly stressed that the Legislative Yuan must ratify the agreement as soon as possible for two key reasons: a delay would hurt the nation’s credibility in the international community and benefit South Korea, Taiwan’s main export rival, because it is negotiating a free-trade pact (FTA) of its own with Beijing.

Those two arguments seem to have been ignored by the pact’s critics, who have largely focused their ire on the damage to the nation’s economy and public livelihoods the pact would cause and the risks to the nation’s democratic way of life posed by becoming more closely linked to China.

Protesters give thumbs down to Cabinet proposal

Taipei Times

Students outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday hold up cardboard signs calling for the passage of oversight legislation prior to a review of the cross-strait service trade agreement, as police clear the way for legislators and staff vehicles to enter and leave the complex.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times

Student activists occupying the legislative chamber yesterday rejected the Cabinet’s proposal for legislation to monitor cross-strait agreements, calling it an empty, insincere proposal aimed at deceiving the public.

“The Cabinet proposal is rather superficial, especially when [the premier] rejects our demand to apply the law to the review of the cross-strait service trade agreement,” student leader Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan.

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