Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

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.

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.