【 What is Happening?】 The protest broke out in at the evening of 3/18 at the Legislative Yuan (Parliament) of the Republic of China to protest agains the under-table negotiation of the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement as well as the injustice passing of the agreement at in the Legislative Yuan earlier that day. The Kuomintang, who hold 65 of the 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan, originally agreed to a line-by-line discussion of the Trade Agreement but later rescinded their statement. Several hundreds protesters occupied the Legislative Yuan and barricaded the entrance on 3/18. The police have tried entering several times and failed. As the time passed, there are more and more people gathering in front of the Legislative Yuan. Right now (3/20 23:30), the crowd increased to tens of thousands of people from all over Taiwan. The protesters are demanding that the government uphold a promised clause-by-clause and a transparent review of the trade pact. If the agreement is ratified, it would allow service-sector companies in Taiwan and China to set up branches and retail operations in each other’s territory. The students are concerned that the pact will influence Taiwans economy and strengthen Taiwans economic reliance on China, further complicating the delicate political status quo. 【 What is the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement? 】 The service industry in Taiwan holds up to 65% of the employment rate, therefore the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement has a great influence on every aspect of Taiwanese society. Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement is an sub-agreement under ECFA (Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement) signed with China in 2010. Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement is the third stage of ECFA and aiming at deregulate service industry, expand service trades width and depth, as well as boost bilateral cooperation on service trade. According to the agreement, China opens 80 different sectors to Taiwan while Taiwan opens 64 sectors, covering commerce, telecommunications, constructions, environment, health and society, tourism, entertainment, transportation and finance etc. Although it is claimed that there are only 64 sectors but it actually covers a wide range of industries of over thousands of occupations. 【Why is it Controversial? 】 1. The unsymmetrical of the agreement between two countries. a. The inequality of limits - There are only a few limits towards Chinese companies comparing those to Taiwanese companies in China.Most of the Chinese companies can open wholly-owned companies in any part of Taiwan while there are many regulations for Taiwanese companies, and in most sectors Taiwanese companies can only open joint companies in Fujian. b. The inequality of economic scale - Lots of the large companies in China are state-run and the economy scale is much bigger than Taiwans. Take financial institute for instance, the assets of finance industry in China is 20 times bigger than those in Taiwan. What is concerned the most is that there are lots of government subsidies and privileges for state-run companies in China. c. The inequality of political environment - While Taiwan is a democratic society, China is not exactly so. There are always grey areas in terms of law enforcement in China. It is very easy to end up with labor exploitation, environmental damage, and vicious price competition. 2. Economic interest is over national interest. a. It only benefits a few large enterprises - The backbone of Taiwanese economy are actually small to medium business. It is very hard for them to compete. There are no any corresponding measures to support the small business neither plans to cultivate new industry. b. Taiwan opens our telecommunication and transportation to China - yes, it strongly violates national interest and our freedom of speech. It makes surveillance and acquiring sensitive information easier than ever. 3. Intransparency of the negotiation process. The intransparency of the negotiation process result in the inability of supervision by Legislative Yuan.There are barely any negotiation with the public and there are only 3 very rush public hearings so far. 【Why are We Protesting? 】 1. Under-table negotiation of Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement. From 2013, the Legislative Yuan has already drafted Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement and agreed to review clause-by-clause. But until today, we still are left in the dark about the negotiation process of the pacts and there were only three very rushed public hearings held on the matter. 2. The violation of democratic procedure in the Legislative Yuan. At 3/18, in an ensuing scuffle, the committee chairman, Chang Ching-Chung, announced that the review was complete and that the pact will be submitted to the legislature for a final reading without any adjustment or discussion. The act strongly violate democratic procedure. 3. Demanding clause-by-clause review and re-evaluation What we can do is demanding clause-by-clause review and re-evaluate the impacts of industries. One of the major problem in terms of the legal process right now is that there is no any law regulate the procedure of cross-strait agreements. So the legislation of the law on signing cross-strait agreements will be the first step and then come after clause-by-clause review. 【 Who are the Protestors?】 The protesters are mainly young and furious students from all over Taiwan. They are not led by any political parties. The crowd started to gather at the evening of 3/18. Many singers, artists, and college professors have shown their supports as well.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 15:46:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015