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KMT accelerates into high gear to
promote ECFA
By Shih Hsiu-chuan
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Jun 27, 2010, Page 3
Protesters hold up banners criticizing
President Ma Ying-jeou during a march through Taipei yesterday. The protest
called for a referendum on the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement
(ECFA) and opposed the creation of a “one China market.”
PHOTO: CNA
While protesters took their anti-economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA)
message to the streets in Taipei City, officials from the Chinese Nationalist
Party (KMT) government yesterday swung into action to promote the cross-strait
trade pact, which is scheduled to be signed on Tuesday in Chongqing, China.
Cabinet officials — including Minister Without Portfolio Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘),
Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥), Council of Agriculture
Chairman Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) and Vice Chairman Hu Sing-hwa (胡興華), and Deputy
Chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Kao Charng (高長) — each chaired
workshops on the subject in Taipei, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Taichung and Keelung
yesterday.
Executive Yuan Spokesman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said that similar workshops would
continue nationwide, with government officials to explaining the content of an
ECFA to the public face to face.
The event in Taipei County’s Junghe (中和) drew 1,000 people, although some of
them were mobilized by KMT county councilors. Interviewed by cable station
Formosa TV, some said they did not know why they were there.
Chiang said the government also planned to purchase newspaper ads and TV ads to
promote an ECFA. A recent full-page ad published in the Chinese-language Apple
Daily carried a statement by MAC Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) rebutting
opponents’ criticism of an ECFA.
Yiin yesterday said the government had held more than 2,000 workshops on an ECFA
since last year.
“Policy explanation is never enough. We have to continue efforts to make people
understand the benefits and impacts of an ECFA,” he said.
Asked for comment, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said the government respected the
people’s right to participate in an anti-ECFA rally held by the opposition
yesterday.
He reiterated that the final version of an ECFA would ensure benefits for Taiwan
and its people, urging the Democratic Progressive Party to oversee the
government in implementing an ECFA rather than oppose the trade deal.
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