|
ECFA conspiracy must be stopped
Monday, Apr 12, 2010, Page 8
The second round of negotiations on an economic cooperation and framework
agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China last week has further clarified the
situation: The ECFA is an open conspiracy between the Chinese Nationalist Party
(KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to create a cross-strait economic
market aimed at accelerating economic unification with Taiwan. In light of this
conspiracy the time has come for Taiwanese to decide whether they want to accept
China’s promised favors and superficial economic sweeteners and stand by whilst
their country is annexed or stand up and oppose the plans of these two Chinese
parties for the sake of long term national prosperity.
It is an open secret that China intends to use the ECFA to annex Taiwan. During
the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at the beginning of last month, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) announced that the ECFA is one of this year’s most important
projects, and emphasized that it would make an important contribution to the
“unification of the motherland.” Despite its initial suspicion of the ECFA,
China is now taking a more aggressive approach and has offered to give up some
of its purported benefits as bait and is now pressing for the agreement to be
signed as soon as possible. The main reason for this shift in attitude is of
course the low approval ratings of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and efforts on
the part of the Chinese communists to help the KMT in the face of widespread
doubts over the ECFA in Taiwan.
As expected, just ahead of the second round of talks, China’s Taiwan Affairs
Office Director Wang Yi (王毅) offered five examples of the potential benefits
China was willing to forgo. Three of those were not expanding agricultural
exports, not initiating exports of labor services and protecting small and
medium enterprises and disadvantaged industries. After Wang set the tone, the
last day and a half of talks in Taoyuan County’s Dasi Township (大溪) went
according to plan.
Ma is the main culprit behind the ECFA. He is a man who is firmly focused on
eventual unification and is assisted in his pursuit of this goal by Vice
President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), who advocates a common cross-strait market. Both
Ma and Siew are eager to tie Taiwan’s economy to that of China even if the cost
is annexation. However, despite the support of huge consortiums and political
and media forces promoting unification, this no holds barred, pro-China approach
to governing is making it very difficult to sell the ECFA to the Taiwanese
public. This is why, although the name has changed from CEPA to CECA and now
ECFA, no one, neither officials nor the general public, seems to have any idea
what it contains. At the same time, more and more people are demanding that the
issue be decided by a referendum.
What is perhaps least acceptable is that despite having made almost no progress
in promoting the ECFA, the government has become more arrogant rather than show
humility and listen to public opinion. For example, those KMT politicians who
double as members of the party’s central standing committee are using their
position in the legislature to force the finance industry to promote an ECFA.
They have even requested that the Ministry of Finance link the agreement to
government allocation of tax revenue, with city and county governments opposed
to a trade pact receiving nothing. It is also said that the academic community
is too scared to raise objections to the ECFA. Besides pushing a bit too hard
for this unworkable plan, the Ma administration also lies at every opportunity.
It holds talks about the benefits of an ECFA on a daily basis, but keeps
completely silent on its shortcomings or potential failings. The government has
said that one premise for the ECFA is 60 percent public approval, but it is
pushing for the agreement to be signed next month or in June, regardless of
public opinion.
Parallel to its strong promotion of an ECFA, the government treats China as a
normal friendly country, which is wishful thinking. The Ma administration claims
that an ECFA tackles only economic issues and refuses to even mention the word
“unification.” Instead, it notes that Taiwan’s representatives asked China to
give up some of its benefits from the agreement and insists that an ECFA will
help Taiwan promote greater economic cooperation with other countries in the
Asia-Pacific region and Europe, as well as with the US and Japan. The government
refuses to organize a referendum on an ECFA because no other countries organize
referendums on free-trade agreements (FTA) and because there were no referendums
on previous FTAs. That argument obviously ignores the fact that the public
distrusts China, which still threatens to attack Taiwan militarily and subjects
Taiwan to unrelenting pressure in the international arena.
Many people now hope that the debate between Ma and Democratic Progressive Party
(DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will be followed by a referendum, giving
the public an opportunity to show that sovereignty rests with the people.
If Taiwan wants to sign a FTA with China, it should do so within the framework
of the WTO, with China as one of many negotiation partners. This is how to
develop a correct international strategy. However, the government not only wants
to talk to China one-on-one, it is also desperate to sign this nonsensical
agreement. Even worse, once Taiwan signs an ECFA, it will be completely
controlled by China. The government accuses the previous DPP government of
having caused the nation’s economy to become increasingly dependent on China; an
ECFA with Beijing will only make this situation worse, but then again, that is
probably exactly what the government wants.
China is now doing all it can to help the Ma administration sell an ECFA to the
public because it is clearly encountering difficulties doing so on its own. The
KMT and the CCP are conspiring together and China is offering economic benefits
to get the willing Ma administration more firmly on the hook. Tang Wei (唐煒),
CPPCC member and head of the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs department
under China’s commerce ministry and Hsu Chun-fang (徐純芳), deputy director of
Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade, seem to get along very well, which highlights
how the KMT and the CCP are working together to take Taiwan down a road from
which there is no return. It is incumbent on the public to rise up with force
and spirit and stop this conspiracy before it’s too late.
|
