Taiwan approves historic trade pact
TAIWAN
Agence France-Presse in Taipei
4:30pm, Aug 18, 2010
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Taiwan's parliament on Tuesday approved a historic but controversial trade deal with the mainland which is expected to bring the two former rivals closer than ever before.

Getting the Taiwanese legislature’s approval was seen as crucial in terms of securing legitimacy for the Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (ECFA) – by far the island’s most wide-ranging accord yet with Beijing

“The ECFA is extremely important to Taiwan if it hopes to avoid being marginalised economically amid an increasing number of trade blocs,” said Cheng Ching-ling, a legislator with the pro-Beijing Kuomintang (KMT) party.

The mainland is Taiwan’s largest trading partner, its largest investment destination, and now also home to a growing number of Taiwanese people.

The ECFA was passed with 68 votes for and none against. Members of the anti-Beijing opposition refused to take part in the vote, instead voicing protests, reporters on the scene said.

Taiwan’s opposition had voiced vehement opposition to ECFA since it was signed in June, but in the end it allowed the deal to pass through the 112-seat parliament after just a day of debate.

“The situation right now is pretty much like a dog barking at a train, and we actually can do nothing about it,” said Tsai Huang-lang, a legislator for the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party.

“Once the agreement becomes effective, which is inevitable now, Taiwan will lose its sovereignty and become like Hong Kong and Macau.”

The ECFA has been a major priority for Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT, who swept to power in 2008 on a vow to improve the island’s economy through better ties with Beijing.

Approval was never in doubt given the KMT’s absolute majority in parliament, but the legislative green light was nevertheless seen as important in order to legitimise the pact.

While seeking domestic backing for the ECFA in the months prior to its signing in June, President Ma repeatedly said that he would seek parliamentary approval for the agreement.

The ECFA does not explicitly call on Taiwan and China to get the support of their parliaments, saying simply that they must complete “due process” and then notify each other.

When Beijing and Taipei signed the agreement in June, they said it would take effect “within six months”, but they have released no detailed timetable.

“Ma Ying-jeou is selling out Taiwan” and “ECFA means more unemployment,” were among the slogans chanted by the protesters outside parliament, reflecting common worries among supporters of the opposition.

A group of protesters stripped down to their underwear, saying their protest symbolised Taiwan losing everything to the mainland.

The ECFA has been widely characterised as the boldest step yet towards reconciliation between the former rivals, who split after the end of a civil war in 1949.

KMT politicians have hailed the pact, saying it will bolster the island’s economy, but the DPP and its allies claim that it will undermine Taiwan’s de facto independence.

Although Taiwan and the mainland have been governed separately for more than six decades, Beijing considers the island China's territory and has vowed to get it back, by force if necessary.

Tung Chen-yuan, a China expert at Taipei’s National Chengchi University, said the pact will benefit Taiwan rather than China, even though it may not help the island in the short term by as much as the government claims.

“It will bolster the confidence of investors – both from here and abroad – as they believe lots of business opportunities will emerge from the closer links between the two sides,” he said.

Why suprise?

A great blow to the TI movement

Hopefully this is a huge leap towards reunification. And hopefully reunification is a huge leap towards Chinese-style democracy.

I don't think it's a surprise considering President Ma does have a pro-China stance. Plus, this serves to benefit both China and Taiwan's interests especially their IT sector.

Ma is a spy, all of his family are spies. PRC and ROC still formally have war, signing a peace treaty would have been much more logical than a trade agreement between two warring states.

get over it.

Taiwan is part of China, why do you want to dismember and weaken the Chinese state?

The only China left is situated on Formosa island. How can you call a set up statelet a "China"? PRC was set up by Western imperialists and it's not a secret.

What's your proof then?

I know they have two Jews within the Communist Party of China, BUT I'm not so sure about the Western imperialists.

They have two Jews who speak Mandarin, aha!

I would say that even USSR in it's days was a total Western set-up. Europeans teamed up and sent Blanc (aka Lenin) to take down Russians, while they were obsessed with their own problems. It's not a secret that Blanc was German funded and armed, both before and after WWI. Blanc's successor Stalin even got a divide and conquer treaty from Nazi Germany, which allowed him to occupy Eastern Europe. Even amid the Cold War, West and USSR were tied together by unequal trade treaties, which almost formalised petroleum and gas price fixing. Since 1960 the backbone of USSR's economy was long term gas and oil supply contracts. When oil prices felt in eighties so did the USSR.

I wouldn't even comment on a fact that Mao was Stalin's puppet from the early beginning.

You can be sure, the next opium war would be called either a "sweatshop war", or "resin sandals war". It's in best Western interests to keep Commie's China a backward, giant sweatshop nation with substandard living and oppression of everything which tries to counter it.

Jews that trying to control China within gets assimilated. For example the Kaifeng Jews, Shanghai Jews, and Harbin Jews, all are assimilated and failed to control China.

because first i heard about this trade pact and what it would do in bringing PRC and ROC much closer together, but that it wasnt passed yet. then i heard they just call on US to sell more sophisticated weapons because of threat from PRC and how PRC still have 1300 missiles pointed at ROC. so i didnt think it would be passed. but here we are.

1. Every year, the trade deficits between Taiwan and Mainland is around 60 billion US dollar, comparing to 2009 TW's gdp 361 billion. So as u see, taiwan can get a lot of money from mainland. Everyone likes money(well especially for chinese).
2. I think no one would believe TW would win mainland if war happened. So it is just a waste of money, or politic show.( well US would never sell TW the best/latest weapons)

China is sucking Taiwan in like a massive black hole

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2011-01...nt_11785564.htm
the ECFA will place Taiwan in the running for the race toward the bottom. Taiwan has always been in the game though with a dollar peg so I'm not sure what to think about it. There simply aren't enough jobs in the world for full employment everywhere.

It's true that this WILL increase unemployment in the long run much like what NAFTA did to America. Manufacturing is more or less gutted here already anyway.