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Three-day ECFA sit-in protest starts
PUBLIC VOICE: The protesters urged the government to hold
a referendum amid rising fears that the proposed trade pact could weigh on local
industries and workers
By Vincent Y. Chao and Mo Yan-chih
STAFF REPORTERS
Friday, May 21, 2010, Page 1
Former premier Frank Hsieh, second left, leads
at a sit-in protest in Taipei yesterday.
PHOTO: MAURICE TSAI, BLOOMBERG
Hundreds of protesters wearing green shirts gathered in Taipei yesterday to
begin a three-day sit-in calling for a referendum on the government's proposal
to sign a trade agreement with China.
Staged at the Jinan Road entrance to the legislature and surrounded by a light
police presence, the crowd chanted slogans including “Give the people a voice”
and “We want a referendum.”
President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) administration says that signing an economic
cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with Beijing would prevent Taiwan from
being marginalized following the implementation of ASEAN Plus One (China).
Critics, however, say that opposition to an ECFA has been growing in recent
months, fueled by the government's unwillingness to disclose key parts of the
agreement, including a list of industries likely to be affected by an influx of
cheaper competing goods from China.
Addressing the sit-in, which included a large number of farmers from Yunlin
County who were concerned that the pact would have an adverse effect on the
local agricultural industry, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai
Ing-wen (蔡英文) said: “The people only have one wish: that an ECFA, which concerns
Taiwan's future and our next generation, should first be put to a referendum.”
Tsai said Ma had failed to take into account China's political objectives and
that the Taiwanese public should reject an agreement that would entrust Taiwan's
future to its cross-strait neighbor.
“China is not a democratic country; China is also not a market-economy.
Moreover, China harbors dangerous political ambitions toward Taiwan. The
question I want to ask is: Should we really be handing our political future to
China?” Tsai said to a roaring chorus of “No!”
Police put the number present during the afternoon at 800 to 1,000, while
organizers said it was more than 1,000. Nearly a dozen prospective DPP city
councilor candidates also arrived earlier in the afternoon, armed with election
cars, flags and promotional flyers, giving the sit-in a visible political
atmosphere. Concerns that an opening ceremony at 2pm would be disrupted by four
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City councilors later proved to be
unfounded.
The crowd began winding down in the evening as it started drizzling
intermittently. However, hundreds remained, despite a torrential downpour early
in the night.
Organizers said they expected numbers to swell again during daytime today as
news of the sit-in, which was not advertised, spreads by word-of-mouth.
The three day sit-in is split into 20 periods of two hours each, with groups
adopting daylight time slots, while the protest organizers continue the sit-in
overnight between 10pm and 6am.
Lin Fang-wen (林芳文), a middle-aged farmer from Yunlin County, said: “Our products
are already in stiff competition against loads of smuggled agricultural goods
from China. What an ECFA will do is make all these illegal goods, legal, killing
our industry.”
The DPP also expressed worries that middle-class workers would be heavily
impacted by an ECFA as Chinese companies, with their lower-cost labor, would
have free access to the Taiwanese market.
Ma has said the government would establish a 10-year, NT$95 billion (US$2.95
billion) fund to aid industries potentially hard-hit by the agreement.
However, a number of DPP lawmakers, taking turns making speeches to the crowd,
said the Ma administration failed to take into account WTO regulations that say
if an ECFA — or free-trade agreement — were signed, Taiwan and China would have
to open up to 90 percent of cross-strait trade to duty-free access within the
next decade.
Chou Pi-yu (周碧玉), a protester in her 60s who joined the sit-in with her
two-year-old grandson, said: “It's the next generation that will really feel the
impact of this mistake.”
The sit-in, which included a mock awards ceremony and an evening concert along
with speeches and lectures, is expected to continue until 10pm on Saturday.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) urged former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), one of
the organizers, in a press conference last week to shorten the three-day protest
in the interests of 2,000 students who will be taking competence tests tomorrow
and on Sunday at Taipei Municipal Chenggong Senior High School on Jinan Road.
Hau denied any political motivations behind the city government's move, adding
that the city respected the public's right to protest. Although sounds tests
taken yesterday morning at the sit-in showed noise levels to be within
acceptable limits set by the city government, it still called on protesters to
ensure that the noise would not affect test-takers.
Chen Ming-cheng (陳銘政), director of the Police Department's Zhongzheng First
Precinct, said police had banned protesters from using megaphones or horns from
8:40am to 5:10pm tomorrow and from gathering around the area after 4pm tomorrow.
Fang Yang-ning (方仰寧), director of the Police Department's Traffic Police
Division, called on students and their parents to avoid Zhongshan S Road,
Qingdao E Road and the adjacent area around the Legislative Yuan and Ketagalan
Boulevard.
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