Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Protesters demand full review of ECFA

Taipei Times

Dozens of demonstrators yesterday staged a protest outside the legislature to demand that lawmakers stringently review the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) that Taiwan and China signed on Tuesday.

Wearing T-shirts with the inscription “the people are the masters” and billing themselves as a non-violent protest group, the group silently marched around the building holding placards reading “an ECFA referendum is a basic human right.”

Sovereignty upheld? Think again

J. Michael Cole 寇謐將

President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration on Tuesday was all jubilance after the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) was signed in Chongqing, China, saying that it had managed to sign the pact in a way that upheld Taiwan’s sovereignty.

While it is too soon to tell whether the breakneck pace with which the deal was negotiated (about six months) and the legislature’s likely rubberstamping of the ECFA documents will hurt Taiwan’s interests, the mechanism used to complete the process most certainly did. In that regard, the Ma administration could be accused of dishonesty.

China’s deployment of missiles is a mistake

Nat Bellocchi 白樂崎

Recent statements by US Senator Dianne Feinstein about Taiwan and its relations with China caused quite a stir.

The statement that attracted most attention was a remark she made during a Senate hearing with US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on June 16, indicating that during a recent trip to China, leaders in Beijing had offered to “redeploy back” some of their military forces, including missiles, opposite Taiwan, in return for Washington not selling arms to Taipei.

Investors ponder unknown knowns

Taipei Times Editorial

Time flies. Some people might not have noticed, but the first half of the year has come and gone, at a time when many in Taiwan were still heatedly discussing the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China, which was finally signed last week.

With the arrival of the second half of the year there has been a noticeable jump in the temperature, as investors wonder whether to increase their equity investments as the economy recovers or take a break and lower their portfolio holdings over the summer.

More Articles...