Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ma's push to stampede Taiwan people to ECFA

Taiwan News Editorial

In a rush to sign the bitterly controversial "Cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement" with China by the end of June, President Ma Ying-jeou and leading officials of his Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) government have launched an intensive campaign to persuade the public about the benefits of the pact with our authoritarian neighbor and downplay its risks.

KMT Premier Wu Den-yih stated yesterday that the opposition Democratic Progressive Party and Taiwan Solidarity Union have been trying to "frighten" the Taiwan people.

Anti-ECFA groups join in campaign

Taipei Times

Pro-independence organizations vowed yesterday to launch a long-term campaign against the government’s plan to sign a trade agreement with China and promised to take part in an anti-ECFA rally on June 26.

Officials and representatives from at least eight groups held a joint press conference in Taipei, chanting that they were against “secret negotiations between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and China that sell out a democratic Taiwan.”

President’s credibility on the line with ECFA

Jerome Keating

Any fool nation can sign a trade agreement with China, if it gives Beijing everything it wants. The question of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) is not a matter of trade with China; that’s a no-brainer. Rather, the question is how and under what conditions an agreement is signed. In the case of Taiwan, a potential pact is an issue of the competency and credibility of its president.

A well known visiting professor of international trade negotiations put it this way: “If any of my graduate students proposed entering a trade agreement of such serious proportions as ECFA and ... set a deadline for negotiations ... I would fail him.”

China on the brink of huge social changes

Paul Lin 林保華

Looking at the employee suicides at Hon Hai-owned Foxconn Technology Group’s plant in Shenzhen, China, as a mere labor dispute is superficial. It is easy to see that Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) is a visionary entrepreneur from his response to the events. In one week, he raised workers’ salaries twice — a total of 122 percent.

The raise satisfied workers, stunned competitors and forced the Chinese government to consider the long-term impacts of the decision on China’s development.

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