4/17/2014
Department of International Affairs - Democratic Progressive Party
April 17 - Taiwan
Affairs Office (TAO) spokesperson Fan Liqing commented yesterday (April 16), “We
hope that follow-up agreements to the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement,
including a goods trade pact, will not be hampered by student protests.”
In response to the
TAO spokesperson’s remarks, Mr. Hung Tsai-lung, director of the DPP’s China
Affairs Department, commented that the purpose of the Cross Strait Agreement
Oversight Mechanism is a reflection of the demands by the Taiwanese people
towards cross strait agreements.
Director Hung
said, “These voices represent the diverse and vibrant voices of a democratic society.
An oversight allows for disadvantaged sectors and small and medium enterprises
to participate in the process, preventing just the few groups in the KMT and
CCP party collaboration to solely benefit. An oversight also allows for the
process of signing cross strait agreements to become more democratic and more
comprehensive.”
“The cross strait
monitoring bill will be helpful to the development and normalization of cross
strait relations. Since the services agreement and the goods trade pact were
negotiated each in their own way, the goods pact will not be affected. Future
contentions in regards to cross strait agreements would be avoided if the KMT
follows the principle of first enacting the monitoring bill before reviewing
the agreement. Additionally, suspicions of black-box operations would be eased.”
Responding to TAO
Spokesperson Fan’s comment that Taiwan independent forces were trying to
reinstate into law “state to state relations” and “one country on each side”,
which according to Fan is damaging the cross strait peaceful development,
Director Hung also responded, “The main spirit of the oversight bill is to
allow the people and the legislature to go through a democratic process of
debate and civic participation.”
Director Hung
emphasized that viewing this oversight bill from the perspectives of partisan
divisions or from the stances of independence and unification is the wrong
perception not only of the students’ movement, but also of the entire political
circumstances in Taiwan at the moment.
