Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The day that changed our world

Taipei Times Editorial

Depending on how one looks at it, today could either be the beginning of a new era of trade in the Taiwan Strait or a day of infamy for Taiwan as an independent country. What is already certain is that the entire negotiation process for the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) was dangerously rushed and, even more important, undemocratic.

The fact that the ECFA was arranged in less than six months, when similar bilateral trade agreements often require years, is in itself worrying. It is doubly so when the bigger party involved does not recognize the existence of the smaller party.

Presidential Office rejects Dalai Lama’s criticism

Taipei Times

The Presidential Office yesterday dismissed comments by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who said the Chinese Nationalist (KMT) administration appeared to be “aimless.”

Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said the direction of the administration was clear.

“Our policy is Taiwan is always the focus and the people’s interest comes first,” he said.

TSU to relaunch ECFA referendum

Taipei Times

The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) announced yesterday that it would submit a new referendum proposal tomorrow that aims to ask voters whether they agree with the government’s signing of a controversial trade pact with China.

Unhappy that the Central Election Commission (CEC) rejected a similar proposal earlier this month, the opposition party said it had gathered the necessary 86,000 petition forms to launch the first phase of a new referendum drive and did so faster than expected.

KMT will pay price for Taiwan-PRC ECFA

Taiwan News Editorial

The massive protest march and rally in Taipei Saturday organized by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party and Taiwan Solidarity Union highlighted the continued anxiety in Taiwan over the unilateral drive by President Ma Ying-jeou and his Chinese Nationalist Party government to ink a bitterly controversial "Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement" (ECFA) with the People's Republic of China.

Ma and other KMT officials and pro-KMT news media commentators have called on the opposition to accept the accomplished fact of the ECFA, which will be signed in Chongqing, China tomorrow by Taipei's Strait Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Ping-kun and Beijing's Association for Relations across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin, and to monitor its implementation "rationally."

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