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Vote the KMT out
Monday, Jul 12, 2010, Page 8
Not long after the the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) was
signed on June 29, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) declared that it should be
regarded as a treaty and that the legislature must accept or reject the pact
without making any amendments.
It has yet to be decided if the ECFA is a treaty or not. Legislative Yuan
Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) stressed that, based on interpretations by the
Council of Grand Justices, no cross-strait agreement can be viewed as a treaty.
It is clear that the ECFA is not a treaty, because a treaty is an agreement
signed between sovereign states. The ECFA was not signed by two sovereign
states, but by the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the Association for
Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS). These may be quasi-official bodies,
but no government officials were involved in the signing. Thus, the ECFA is not
a treaty. it has also been negotiated behind closed doors.
In 1949, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) declared that the Republic of
China (ROC) had ceased to exist and thus Beijing refuses to recognize Ma as
president of the ROC. In fact, the ECFA can be regarded as an agreement between
the government of Taiwan region and the central government of China.
At first Ma regarded the ECFA as a treaty, but later changed his mind to say
that although the ECFA was not a treaty it should be treated as one. He has also
said that the legislature can only accept or reject the ECFA in its entirety.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has pointed to
the legislature’s article-by-article reviews of free-trade agreements (FTA) with
El Salvador and Honduras, the Intellectual Property Rights Protection Agreements
with the American Institute in Taiwan and the Extradition Treaty with the
Dominican Republic. Wang has also raised the legislature’s article-by-article
reviews of international covenants signed between Taiwan and its Central
American allies.
As the elected president of a democratic country, Ma should not be manipulating
the legislature’s review of the ECFA. Indeed, his tactics have become
frighteningly reminiscent of those used by former dictator Chiang Kai-shek
(蔣介石).
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has 75 legislators and controls the
legislature, which is why Ma is confident it will accede to his demands and
obediently pass the ECFA.
The opposition has sought to have the ECFA decided in a national referendum,
twice, but both times been rejected. The DPP has no way of voting down the ECFA
with only 33 seats in the legislature.
Since Ma assumed the presidency in 2008, he has skillfully collaborated with the
PRC to promote his goal of unification with China. He has sacrificed Taiwan’s
sovereignty, reduced the country to an “area” or “region” of China and himself
to a regional head of Taiwan.
Ma said Taiwan would sign FTAs with other countries, yet Taiwan Affairs Office
director Wang Yi (王毅) said China would not allowed this even after signing the
ECFA. Furthermore, Taiwan has been forced by China to use the title “Chinese
Taipei” on the international stage. Can “Chinese Taipei” really sign FTAs with
sovereign nations?
An ECFA will gradually bind Taiwan to a Chinese common market, another step
toward the extinction of a democratic and sovereign Taiwan. To prevent Ma’s
unification plans, the DPP must win back the presidency in 2012.
EDWIN KUNG
Washington State
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