Thursday, October 28, 2010

Reading the ECFA fine print

IPS has an article on what an alliance of 20 civic groups that began in July found in the ECFA fine print:
In a report released Aug. 11, the alliance raised a long list of issues with the ECFA.

Among other things, it called for the elimination of an article in the ECFA that authorised the organisation of a bilateral "joint cross-strait economic cooperation commission" and granted the commission the power to negotiate follow-on agreements that would not require legislative review or approval.

The alliance opposed the clause on the grounds that the arrangement would transfer government authority beyond the scope of legal accountability to Taiwan’s laws or citizen monitoring.

A statute for the handling of cross-strait relations with China had actually been promulgated in 1992 and revised in 2002. But Academia Sinica Institute for Legal Studies Associate Research Prof Max Huang Kuo-chang says the statute mandated the SEF only to negotiate "pragmatic" or "technical" issues with ARATS.

"The cross-strait statute did not foresee that the SEF would be negotiating major treaties or to be ‘delegated’ powers of government on a permanent basis," he says.
But ECFA is non-political and there is no threat to Taiwan's democracy....
_________________
Daily Links:
_______________________
Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

2 comments:

jerome in vals said...

台湾にも日本にも「政府と国民との乖離」があるんだ。
In Taiwan as in Japan, the government has lost touch with the people.

「尖閣領海侵犯船の船長事件における仙谷由人官房長 = 東京国際映画祭大騒ぎ事件における呉敦義首相。
Chief Cabinet Secretary of the DPJ-led governement Yoshito Sengoku and PM Wu Den-yi, the former with regard to the Senkakus hull-butting, the latter with regard to the Tokyo Film Festival row, have both been squeamish about laying blame on China's government.


我々日本人は中国の尖閣諸島、東支那海への野心を目の当たりにしているわけだが、今回はその台湾への野心をも目撃するに至った。中国の膨張政策の前でまったく同様の苦境に立たされる日本と台湾の国民は、なぜこれまで提携をしようとしないできたかである。本来なら、ここまで心が通じ合う間柄なのに、なぜお互いに励まし合い、手を携えてこなかったかだ(主な原因は日本側の台湾への無関心だが)。」

All above, lifted from 「台湾は日本の生命線!」blog owner and author Hideki Nagayama (永 山 英 樹)’s 2010/10/28 post, 「東京映画祭騒動と中国覇権主義ー台湾は日本の応援を喜んでいる」
http://mamoretaiwan.blog100.fc2.com/

Nagayama is saying that given the China-hugging proclivities of both Taiwanese and Japanese economic, political and media elites, the two people, owing to their bonds, should join hands to better resist an hegemonic China.

A Japanese commentator saw in the revived Chinese infatuation for “小日本鬼子” an opportunity to market all sorts of “oni” (鬼)-related goods. Trick? Nah, Treat!

Anonymous said...

Why do you even bother posting the UDN polls? UDN uses the telephone survey as an advertising tool. Because of the strong distaste many Greens have upon hearing "Lianhe bao" over the phone, their polls are always way, way off.

UDN knows this is a problem but like I said, the survey is really an advertising tool and not announcing they are Lianhe Bao is not an option.