Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

ECFA politics rear their ugly head

Taipei Times Editorial

The proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration hopes to sign with China sometime next month is, despite what Ma wants the public to believe, a very political affair.

Any doubt that this is not the case was dispelled on Sunday after the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) reported that customs authorities in Shenzhen City’s Yantian Port, one of the largest container ports in the world, said they would strictly enforce “country of origin” rules, meaning products made in Taiwan would have to be labeled “made in Taiwan, China” or be barred entry into the Chinese market.

Legislature must act as an ECFA watchman

Ku Chung-hwa 顧忠華

Taiwan is a democracy, and the basic principles underlying democracy are the separation of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, and the mutual checks and balances thereof. Of these three, it is the checks and balances of the first two, the executive and legislative branches of government, that are the most crucial. This is because they are instrumental in making sure government policy reflects public opinion, and in preventing it from going off in its own direction unchallenged.

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been in power for two years, and he has doubled as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman since last October. Over the past two years, the power of the legislature has been curbed to the extent that it is losing its ability to effectively keep the government in check or participate in policymaking.

Ma's racialism risks Taiwan's free choice

Taiwan News Editorial

It is unfortunate that we must admit that "we told you so!"

In an editorial on March 16, 2008, we warned that the sudden conversion to "Taiwan self-determination" by President Ma Ying-jeou, then the candidate of the right-wing Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), was a "counterfeit."

We warned voters that Ma's sudden publication of half-page advertisements in local media declaring that "We Resolutely Advocate That the Future of Taiwan Must be Decided by the Taiwan People Themselves" was "little more than an attempt at piracy" of the core value of the right of democratic self-determination for the 23 million Taiwan people cherished for decades by the Taiwan democratic movement and by the Democratic Progressive Party.

An open letter to Wang Jin-pyng

Nat Bellocchi, et al.

Dear Mr Speaker, Wang Jin-pyng (王金平),

As strong supporters of a free and democratic Taiwan, we would like to call your attention to a number of concerns we have regarding the ongoing negotiations between the Taiwanese and Chinese governments to arrive at an economic cooperation framework agreement.

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