Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Leaders of student groups and other activists hold a press conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday to announce plans for an event outside the legislature compound tomorrow evening to mark the one-year anniversary of the signing of the cross-strait service trade agreement.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times

Several student groups are planning to mark the one-year anniversary of the signing of the cross-strait service trade agreement with an event aimed at warning the government against another attempt to push through controversial bills during the Legislative Yuan’s current extra session.

The service trade agreement was signed in Shanghai on June 21 last year.

The deal had sparked strong objections even before the pact was signed and eventually led to a three-week occupation of the legislature’s main chamber earlier this year after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) tried to rush the pact through the review process.

When Beijing, at a UN tribunal over tensions concerning sovereignty in the South China Sea, included Taiwan and Penghu as part of its territorial claims, nobody in the government reacted or uttered a single word in response. When pressed about this by the media, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) merely said: “We protested this 55 years ago.”

However, 55 years ago, the Republic of China had a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, as the sole representative of China, and the People’s Republic of China did not have a seat. Back then, nobody listened to what China had to say. Today, the situation is reversed: Now, everybody listens when China speaks, while Taiwan has no voice.