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Stronger protections
for Taiwanese in pact urged
By Shih Hsiu-chuan / Staff Reporter
Academics and civil groups yesterday urged the government not to back down from
what they called the ¡§basic demands¡¨ in its negotiations with China over an
investment protection deal aimed at ensuring fair treatment for the estimated 1
million Taiwanese investors and others working in China.
The pact is expected to be signed by the end of this month, and there has been
growing concern over its contents, especially over the arbitration method
specified for resolving disputes.
The Alliance of Supervising Cross-Strait Agreements held a press conference
yesterday to outline the ¡§worries¡¨ over the content that both sides have
reportedly agreed to. It castigated the government for ¡§narrowly¡¨ characterizing
the security issue for Taiwanese businesspeople in China as simply a technical
problem of arrest notification. The alliance also accused the government of
abandoning its position on a third-party arbitration mechanism.
Premier Wu Den-yih (§d´°¸q) has called the pact ¡§a major breakthrough,¡¨ with Taiwan
convincing China to agree to notify Taipei within 24 hours if anyone covered by
the pact saw his or her freedom of movement restricted under certain
circumstances, alliance convener Lai Chung-chiang (¿à¤¤±j) said.
¡§We absolutely do not think that [this article] alone would protect personal
liberty. More elements need to be included in the agreement,¡¨ Lai said.
The alliance demanded the government ask Beijing to promise to remove articles
64 and 72 of its Criminal Procedure Law, which would allow Chinese authorities
not to carry out the 24-hour notification if they determine that such notice
would hinder an investigation.
There must be speedy notification in all cases, without exception, the alliance
said.
However, a notification mechanism alone would not be enough to protect Taiwanese
from being tortured or forced to confess, the alliance said. Only ensuring
visitation rights to family members and lawyers as well as Taiwanese officials
during detention could ensure such protection, it said.
The government must also demand that China promise in the new agreement to
revise its Criminal Procedure Law to entitle suspects to have an attorney
present during any questioning, it said.
The alliance also called on the government to push China to phase out its
pre-arrest administrative detention system, as stipulated in Article 69 of its
Criminal Procedure Law.
¡§We have seen several cases of Taiwanese businesspeople being kept in prisons
for a month or more before trial. The legislature has asked China to review the
pre-arrest detention system, but China has remained deaf. If the agreement is to
be signed, China must give a promise that it will phase out the system in three
years,¡¨ Lai said.
Honigmann Hong (¬x°]¶©), who is an assistant professor in National Tsing Hua
University¡¦s China studies program, urged the government to insist that any
disputes under the new accord be brought before an impartial third party for
arbitration, rather than employing a bilateral settlement mechanism.
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