6/26 protest to demand referendum on ECFA

Be there if you can!

The Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) government is planning to sign an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA, 經濟合作架構協議) with Taiwan's untrustworthy authoritarian neighbor China on June 29. That's next Tuesday, despite the fact that even polls by media which favors Ma and his party show that a majority of Taiwanese oppose the agreement and that people of all political stripes support holding a referendum on the issue.

Ten or twenty years from now, when you reflect back on tomorrow's rally to show the Ma government -- and especially the rest of the world -- what the people of Taiwan really think of this deal, will you be able to say "I was there!" or will you say "I was too busy/tired/apathetic, so I didn't go"? Think hard before you choose the latter.


Citizens demand a referendum [on ECFA] and oppose the "one-China" market
June 26 [2010], gather at 3 PM @ Wanhua Station and Dinghao Plaza
(Click to slightly enlarge)
Wednesday's Taipei Times has the important details about the 626 protest in English:

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday that 100,000 people are expected to take to the streets of Taipei on Saturday to demand that the government put its proposed plan to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China to a referendum.

[...]

The party said demonstrators would be split into two groups — an "anti-'one China' market" group and a "referendum on an ECFA" group.

The "anti-'one China' market" route will start at Dinghao Plaza and travel along Zhongxiao E Road, Linsen S Road and Renai Road Sec 1.

The "referendum on an ECFA" march, meanwhile, will begin at Wanhua Station and proceed along Monga Boulevard, Heping W Road Sec 2, Fuzhou Street, Roosevelt Road Sec 1 and Zhongshan S Road.

Both marches will start at 4pm and converge on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office at 5pm, where a number of DPP officials are expected to make speeches.

The protest is scheduled to finish at 7pm, the party said.

How 'bout we make it 200,000?

Remember to take pictures, record videos, and post them online so that when the media underreports the numbers or claims that the crowds were violent, people will be able to find out for themselves what really happened.

Lest ye forget!
And I want to remind readers once again what Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) said about ECFA being one step toward "complete unification of the motherland [sic]":

0:35 YouTube video: "DPP ECFA referendum ad - with English titles"

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Posters: Taiwan, 台灣, protest, 抗議, ECFA, 經濟合作架構協議, referendum, 公投

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Ralph Jennings misreports on Taiwan again

Completely unacceptable

On my Facebook wall, Alex Raymond alerted me to a Ralph Jennings piece from Saturday titled "Taiwanese show guarded acceptance of China pact."

Do Taiwanese "accept" this so-called Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) at all?

Take a look this particular paragraph of Jennings' article [emphasis mine]:

Political analysts said the size of the protest, a month after a sit-in in Taipei attracted only a few hundred, was an indication that Taiwan's public accepted the deal, wanted to know more details or believed the government was deaf to protests.

The first problem there is that Jennings quotes unnamed "political analysts." Would it make a difference if these "analysts" were close to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the party he chairs, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)? Yes, it would. (See an earlier example of Jennings' use of similar tactics.)

The next problem is the simple lack of deductive logic. The first paragraph of the article claims that the size of Saturday's protest was "10,000" (and Jennings has greatly underestimated the number of attendees at previous protests by pro-Taiwan groups) and then tells readers of a sit-in that happened "a month" ago (which, in reality, was a 3-day protest which ended just 15 days ago) and which "attracted only a few hundred." Gee, according to my math, "10,000" is a much larger number, and 15 days is only half a month.

While it may be correct to say that Taiwanese "believed the government was deaf to protests," note how it's not the single possibility which was placed in the headline. Despite the addition of the word "guarded," the one which does appear there (and in the article minus the qualifier) is the one which is the easiest to disprove.

Just what do Taiwanese think about this ECFA?
Let's look at a poll from the pro-Chinese KMT TVBS which was released just this past Monday (May 31, 2010) [104 kb PDF file] for some indications [translations, emphasis mine]:

公投題目「是否同意政府與中國簽ECFA？」：同意42% v.s.不同意44%

Voting on a referendum which asks: "Should the government sign an ECFA with China?" 42% say "Yes" while 44% say "No."

[...] 15%未表示意見。

[...] 15% expressed no opinion.

[...]

辦 ECFA公投？民眾贊成的比例上升至55%，不贊成則下滑到 30%

Hold a referendum on ECFA? Public support increases to 55%, opposition slips to 30%

[...]

若辦公投，六成（59%）民眾說會去投票 [...]

If there is a referendum, 59% of the public says they will vote [...]

Bias!
I don't trust TVBS, but remember that if there's any bias in their poll, it will be in favor of those pushing this ECFA with China. So, I must wonder: Does Ralph Jennings hate Taiwan and the truth, or will he write just anything -- as long as he keeps getting paid to do so?

Don't just accept what you read, especially not when it's written by "pros" who repeatedly provide you with information that is as easily disputed as the stuff Jennings keeps shoveling.

Bonus
Check out how Reuters dissembles even more by using an image (with a caption that only appears as a pop-up) of cheering Taiwanese atop this version of the article.

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Counterpoints: Taiwan, 台灣, ECFA, 經濟合作架構協議, Ralph Jennings, 唐甯思, media, 媒體

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Taiwan under Ma Ying-jeou is a mess

Gangsters and police hand-in-hand -- and so much more!

Sun Moon Biotech -- the scene of the
May 28, 2010 shooting that took place
in broad daylight in Taichung City, Taiwan
in the presence of four police officers
Photo by Tim Maddog
(click to enlarge)

On Friday, May 28, 2010, the shooting murder of gang leader Weng Chi-nan (翁奇楠) which took place in broad daylight in the presence of (at least) four police officers in Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-led Taichung City pulled back the curtain on so much of what is wrong in Taiwan today.

The two senior officers on the scene were Taichung City Police Traffic Chief Lin Chi-you (林啟右) and Criminal Investigation Corps' Third Division head Lin Wen-wu (林文武). The two lower-ranking officers there were Shih Chang-hsing (石長興) and Sergeant Tai Chih-hung (戴志宏).

Surveillance video from the interior of the crime scene exists, but over a week later, not only has this video footage not been shown to the public to help identify and capture the shooter -- it is said to have already been partially erased. UPDATE: That page has ironically disappeared, but I fortunately saved an image of the web page. [/update]

Could somebody be hiding something, y'think? Can you say "accessories to the crime"?

Were the police officers there simply "drinking tea," as has been reported, were they "playing mahjong," or is such speculation just a distraction from what was really going on? So far, we can only rely on the testimony of seemingly untrustworthy sources. Right away all four officers on the scene claimed that they "didn't know" Wang.

But just days later, the story changes slightly. Also at the scene was retired officer Chen Wen-hsiung (陳文雄, the one you may have seen on TV yelling about people making "groundless accusations"), who now admits that he knew Wang, though he claims he "didn't know him well," and he says he invited the other four to the location. Tsk, tsk!

How long will it be before the story changes again?

Taichung Police Commissioner Hu Mu-yuan (胡木源) has already resigned as a result of this scandal. However, the re-election campaign of Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) -- a Chinese KMT politician who has already held office since 2002 (thus having had plenty of time to do something about public order) -- is sure to suffer as a result of the constant attention being given to this matter.

Mayor Hu has repeatedly "declared war" on gangs, yet according to the National Police Agency (警政署), Taichung's crime rate has been the highest in the nation during the past six years.

This sure doesn't look anything like the "clean" Chinese KMT promised by Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in his 2008 presidential election campaign.

The undemocratic Referendum Review Rejection Committee
In news about Taiwan's disappearing democracy, to no one's surprise, the Referendum Review Committee rejected the second proposal for a referendum on the current government's plan to sign an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China. Even a poll by the deep-blue TVBS tells us that support for such a referendum increased from 48% to 55% [104 kb PDF file] since March 2009.

So why can't Taiwanese have a say in this matter? Referendum Review Rejection Committee chairman Chao Yung-mau (趙永茂) is claiming that "The TSU's proposal does not meet the qualification of 'approving a government policy' as stated in the Referendum Act."

This is just another of the Chinese KMT's word games which treat the Taiwanese as idiots.

The Ma government claims that the public supports ECFA, yet hundreds of thousands of signatures had been collected in support of this proposal. Could that number be the very reason the committee voted 12:4 to reject public opinion on something that could affect not only the economy but also Taiwan's sovereignty?

Radical (and mendacious) anti-Taiwan media
In a report on the latest rejected referendum, the frequently-mendacious news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) refers to the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) -- whose "spiritual leader" is former president (then-Chinese KMT) Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) -- as "a radical pro-independence party." More word games.

While I have previously complained about the TSU being infiltrated by Shih Ming-teh's (施明德) redshirts, there are only two groups which would consider the party itself to be "radical," and those groups would be the Chinese KMT and the CCP.

Why isn't anyone in the media referring to those two parties as "radical"?

China proves Ma to be a liar (How will he explain this away?)
After Ma's repeated claims that signing an ECFA with China would open the door for Taiwan to sign free trade agreements (FTAs) with other countries, Chinese officials are ironically the ones who have been more forthcoming:

On the China trade issue, Taiwan protested on Wednesday after a mainland foreign ministry spokesman said Beijing "resolutely opposed" official contact between its diplomatic allies and Taiwan.

Does it matter what Chinese officials say about this? Will that stop other countries from signing FTAs with Taiwan? Read what Franck Varga says about that below.

US Congress listens to Ma's critics, not to Ma
(and Ma listens to no one but China)
A recent report by Congressional Research Services (CRS) titled "Democratic Reforms in Taiwan" has expressed "concern" over "the prolonged detention of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) as a result of complaints by writers and scholars whose open letters (see link below) have been previously covered on this blog.

An article in the June 4, 2010 edition of the Taipei Times also has this to say about the report [highlights mine]:

"A number of professors, writers, activists and ex-officials primarily in the United States have signed open letters on what they called the 'erosion of justice' in Taiwan," the report says.

[...]

The US Congress has also helped, the report says, "by pressing the KMT [Chinese Nationalist Party] regime to end authoritarian abuses of power in favor of freedoms for all the people in Taiwan, including the majority Taiwanese."

The report says that a sustainable democracy helps Taiwan to guard against "undue" Chinese influence as cross-strait engagement has intensified under Ma.

Whenever people criticize things about the Ma government that anyone can see with their own eyes, the Ma government will have a response that treats you like you're imagining things (or perhaps that you're "not Chinese, so you couldn't possibly understand"), but their logic doesn't hold up to the facts. That doesn't seem to bother them in the least.

But remember this: When the Chinese KMT says "up," you should think "down" -- way down -- and check things out for yourself.

Related reading:
* David Reid of David on Formosa blogs: "Rejection of referendum is a denial of democratic rights"

* Ben Goren blogs on Letters from Taiwan: "Pants on Fire"

* Franck Varga blogs about gangsters, Chinese KMT hypocrisy, and more. As Franck points out, "They [the Ma government] want to let the Taiwanese believe that other countries will not be afraid of the Chinese reaction…"

* Michael Turton blogs on The View from Taiwan about Beijing slapping Ma in the face, noting Bonnie Glaser's Nineteen Eighty-Four-like "logic."

* Look back at what Jason Hu told the Taipei Times back in 2001 when he was running for mayor.

* Taiwan Echo writes about the return to days of dictatorship -- and beyond: Ma to Send More Military Instructors to Campus -- Elementary Schools Included

* Part 13 of my series of posts on "the erosion of justice in Taiwan" contains links to all the open letters, the responses, and my earlier comments.

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Facially-tattooed tears: Taiwan, 台灣, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, Taichung City, 台中市, Jason Hu, 胡志強, gangs, 黑道, police, 警察, ECFA, 經濟合作架構協議, referendum, 公投

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Taiwanese demand a referendum on ECFA

Be there, or watch it live

Approximately 60% of Taiwanese of all political stripes support a referendum on the so-called "cross-Strait" [sic -- it should be between two countries] Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA, 經濟合作架構協議) which President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) insists will be signed in June.

If you can't be there either today (Thursday, May 20, 2010), tomorrow, or Saturday, you can watch the protest live via Ustream:
Online video chat by Ustream
For more info visit the ECFA Referendum Alliance (ECFA 公投行動聯盟) site directly.

And never forget what Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) said about ECFA being one step toward "complete unification of the motherland [sic]":

0:35 YouTube video: "DPP ECFA referendum ad - with English titles"

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Ballots: Taiwan, 台灣, Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, 經濟合作架構協議, ECFA, referendum, 公投, protest, 抗議

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Ralph Jennings pushes anti-Taiwan, pro-Ma propaganda

Inexcusable biases

A problematic Reuters piece titled "Taiwan president, opposition clash over China deal" appeared online less than an hour after the close of a debate Sunday afternoon between Taiwan's president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). The topic of the debate was the controversial Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), which Ma has been touting as "urgent" without providing any concrete details regarding the content to the public or to opposition parties.


19:35 YouTube video: "ECFA 第一階段申論"
Translation: ECFA [Debate] Part 1: Introductory Remarks
A reader e-mailed me about Jennings' "false statement[s]" within [that's a direct quote]:

The debate, a new step in Taiwan's democracy, is expected to sway public opinion towards an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) set to be signed with China in June.

You've got to be kidding me! Jennings -- who has previously labeled me as a "sniper" for calling out his lies -- has some nerve. He would have to be hiding under a rock to actually be unaware of previous debates between political adversaries in Taiwan. (Does he mean something else? Whether this so-called "professional" writer and/or his editors are trying to deceive us on purpose is uncertain.)

But when Jennings -- working for a wire service whose reports get carried far and wide -- claims that this particular debate is "expected" to do just what Ma wants it to, this functions as the "carpet bombing" variety of propaganda. (My e-mail correspondent notes that the article is already being carried in the Malaysia Star and the Straits Times.)

Who is "expect[ing]" this kind of result from the debate? You might think Jennings would provide at least one example of who it is that thinks in a way which precisely benefits Ma. But he doesn't.

The article also drops this unbecoming description of Ma's opponent in the very next paragraph:

"If we don't do this deal, what else can we do? The rest of Asia is forming alliances," Ma said, his voice rising, as he stood beside anti-China opposition Democratic Progressive Party chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen.

Why does Ralph Jennings hate neutral reporting? He could have noted how Tsai's party opened trade to China (which Jennings knows is targeting Taiwan with over 1,500 missiles) -- just without sacrificing Taiwan's sovereignty in the process.

Jennings also "generously" (from Ma's perspective) provided this generalization near the bottom of the article:

Television pundits were split on who fared better, giving the island's colourful media talk shows and staunchly divided public plenty to talk about.

Which "television pundits"? Jennings doesn't/won't specify, but if you want to read about some numbers I saw during and after the debate about "who fared better," just follow that link. Unlike Jennings, I even say where I found those numbers.

UPDATE: Here's an online poll by Yahoo asking who did a better job in the debate. The current results are:
* Tsai Ing-wen: 3,682 (59.1%)
* Ma Ying-jeou: 2,333 (37.4%)
* Neither: 216 (3.5%)
[/update]

The craptastic conclusion?
That's anti-Taiwan Ralph Jennings for ya! Go see what other unappetizing things (e.g., positive descriptions of Ma and/or China, unchallenged counterfactual claims, etc.) you can find in his "reporting."

Further reference:
Taiwan's Public Television Service (PTS, 公共電視) uploaded videos of the entire debate to YouTube. The first segment of the series is at the top of this post. Here are the remaining segments:
* ECFA 第二階段交互詰問（1） Translation: Segment 2, Q & A (1)
* ECFA 第二階段交互詰問（2） Translation: Segment 2, Q & A (2)
* ECFA 第二階段交互詰問（3） Translation: Segment 2, Q & A (3)
* ECFA 第二階段交互詰問（4） Translation: Segment 2, Q & A (4)
* ECFA 第二階段交互詰問（5） Translation: Segment 2, Q & A (5)
* ECFA 第三階段結論 Translation: Segment 3, Closing Remarks (5)

* Perhaps this is the sort of place Ralph Jennings finds such "expectations." After the Sunday debate, the deep-blue TVBS did a survey of 906 Taiwanese over the age of 20. With a margin of error of 3.2 percent, it said that "support for ECFA increased by 3 percentage points" [163 kb PDF file] since a survey four days earlier.

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Ghouls and strangulations: Taiwan, 台灣, Reuters, 路透社, Ralph Jennings, 唐甯思, propaganda, 宣傳, ECFA, 經濟合作架構協議, debate, 辯論, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九 Tsai Ing-wen, 蔡英文

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

On the level

Last night, Taiwan's MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) argued that China would not be able to tolerate an ECFA with Taiwan when any pro-Taiwan independence party was in power. In Liu's own words, "The ECFA is a political and economic asset that the KMT has fought to give the Taiwan people. How could we let a pro-Taiwanese Independence party plunder or ruin it?"

The DPP has long complained that the ECFA agreement is meant to bind Taiwan to "One China" both politically and economically. The CCP, likewise, made it obvious that political unification was the ultimate objective.

But only recently a KMT official acknowledge the "logic" of the CCP argument and demonstrate how the ECFA exacts a political cost designed to keep the DPP either out of power or in line with CCP unification demands.

Expect "clarifications" and denials of political pre-requisites for the ECFA agreement.

ECFA is being signed under a one-China framework

In case you still had any doubts...

It should be obvious to anyone not in a persistent vegetative state (and even that might not be enough of an obstacle to miss this) that the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) being "negotiated" between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in Taiwan and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is annexing Taiwan to China.

Today's Taipei Times contains the money quotes:

MAC [Maddog note: the so-called "Mainland" Affairs Council] Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said that under the Act Governing Relations between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the relationship between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is "region to region."

"The legislature passed the law in 1992 and since then such a legal status has never been changed no matter who is in power, including former presidents Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) or [President] Ma Ying-jeou," Liu said.

"Such a theory is not something new invented by President Ma and that is why the trade pact is called a cross-strait economic framework agreement," he said.

Liu made the remarks after being asked by the Taipei Times at a press conference yesterday morning to clarify Ma's comments describing cross-strait ties as being "between two regions."

Liu also said the administration did not want to specify a timeframe for the signing of a free-trade agreement (FTA) with China within an ECFA.

He did not say why, only emphasizing that cross-strait ties were "special."

One thing stands out here: The Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) government is not treating China like the foreign (enemy) country that it is.

And in case you've forgotten how that foreign (enemy) country on the other side of the Taiwan Strait sees the ECFA, listen to their premier, Wen Jiabao (溫家寶):


0:35 YouTube video: "DPP ECFA referendum ad - with English titles"
Further reading:
* Wikisource: Act Governing Relations between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area

* GlobalSecurity.org: Remembering when (then-premier, now-VP) Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) and (then-MAC Chairman, now-National Security Council Secretary-General) Su Chi (蘇起) agreed with (then-president) Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) "state-to-state" theory of relations between Taiwan and China.

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More red flags: Taiwan, 台灣, Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, 經濟合作架構協議, ECFA, Mainland [sic] Affairs Council, 大陸委員會, MAC, Liu Te-shun, 劉德勳, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, Wen Jiabao, 溫家寶, annexation, 併吞

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

DPP protest: info and maps

Step out and join the fun* on December 20

Despite the protests last November to let him know he is not welcome here, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) is coming back to Taiwan to push forward a party-to-party (Chinese Communist Party [CCP]-to-Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT]) Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) which -- in spite of the fact that at least 69% of Taiwanese do not want "unification" with China -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) has called one of the steps which "will certainly bring about complete unification of the motherland [sic]." (See the video below.)


0:35 YouTube video: "DPP ECFA referendum ad - with English titles"
Naturally, the DPP has organized several events ahead of and during Chen Yunlin's arrival. The first of these will be a march and rally in the central Taiwan city of Taichung (台中市) on Sunday, December 20, 2009.

Here's the English-language info from the Taipei Times:

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) demonstration against the government's China-leaning economic policies [Maddog note: ... and Chinese plans to annex Taiwan!] will be held on Sunday in Taichung starting at 2:30pm, the party announced yesterday, urging the public to join the protest.

[...]

Protesters will gather at 2:30pm at two locations — the intersection of Mincyuan Road (民權路) and Taichunggang Road (台中港路) and the corner of Chaoma Road (朝馬路) and Anhe Road (安和路).

The processions are expected to meet up at 5pm on Hueiwun Road (惠文路), where a rally will be held in an empty parking lot, the spokesman said.

"Everyone should come and join the protests to send a loud and clear message to President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] and Chen that all cross-strait issues must be conducted in an open and transparent manner. Taiwan's sovereignty must not be undermined," Chuang said, asking that protesters exercise restraint and avoid violence.

DPP Lawmaker Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅) said that if the government continues to ignore public opinion, protesters could head to the Presidential Office in Taipei next.

Chuang said the DPP would also arrange smaller activities throughout the duration of the meeting from Dec. 21 to Dec. 25. Details will be finalized today by the Central Standing Committee, he said.

Other groups such as Falun Gong practitioners and human right advocates have said they will join the protests.

Meanwhile, according to a survey conducted by the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), more than half of the population believes signing an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with Beijing will hurt Taiwan's economy and livelihood.

Here's a Google Map I made of the routes and rally location:


View December 20, 2009 protest against Chen Yunlin in a larger map
Here's the Chinese-language info from the Liberty Times (自由時報) [English translations mine]:

第四次江陳會將在台中市舉行，民進黨昨表明，二十日舉辦的「破黑箱．顧飯碗」大遊行，將號召至少十萬人上街，由黨主席蔡英文領軍，邀呂蘇游謝、台聯黨主席黃昆輝等人一起參與，二十一日至二十五日也規劃系列小型活動表達抗議。

Ahead of the fourth Chiang-Chen meeting to be held in Taichung, yesterday [Monday, Dec. 14] the DPP announced a "Breaking the Black Box, Protecting the Rice Bowl" march led by party chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen to take place on the 20th and called for at least 100,000 people to take to the streets. Those invited to attend include [former Vice-President Annette] Lu, Su [Tseng-chang], Yu [Shyi-kun], [Frank] Hsieh, Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) chairman Huang Kun-huei, and others. A series of smaller protests is scheduled from the 21st to the 25th.

If it's at all possible, you should be there, too! In my opinion, 100,000 is far too small a number for a protest such as this.

* While it's quite a serious matter, DPP protests and rallies are usually happy affairs.

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The latest dance moves: Taiwan, 台灣, 曹長青, protest, 抗議, Chen Yunlin, 陳雲林, Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, 經濟合作架構協議, ECFA

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Are Taiwanese blind followers of their leader?

Ma Ying-Jeou certainly hopes that is the case when it comes to the proposed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) which he wants the Taiwanese people to accept without questioning. [Must-read link!] I think the Taiwanese people who voted for Ma as president did so because of their willingness to give him the benefit of the doubt on his ability to govern the country. However, these people are running out of patience after a recent incident involving cartoon characters which were designed to promote the ECFA but which ended up insulting the Taiwanese instead.

Other than the above linked questioning, I also found a brief report by Peace Forum, 兩岸三通直航與台灣經濟 (translation: Cross-Strait Three Links, Direct Flights, and Taiwan's Economy), citing the results of an opinion poll drawn from a pan-blue dominated samples that should alarm the Ma administration.

And since Ma said in his recent interview with the Common Wealth Magazine (天下雜誌) that "我們不能忽視民意。其實民主政治不也就是這樣？" ("We cannot ignore public opinions. As a matter of fact, isn’t that what democracy is all about?"), I would like to quote this excerpt from the Peace Forum report:

[...] 四、兩岸三通之進程，取決於談判型式的共識，而非單純經濟考量

三通談判型式與過程的政治含意已遠高於經濟的影響，明顯地，台灣政府若不接受「一個中國」原則，那麼在中國的思考裡，台灣政府幾乎可以被確定會被排除在談判的框架之外。中國明顯的意圖是，將台灣政府的功能邊緣化，而台灣政府是台灣人民以民主的方式選出，台灣政府邊緣化，台灣民主也將不具實質意義。以台灣民主弱化作為代價，來換取禍福未定的經濟利益，是否值得？

不同於單對企業民調，台灣智庫曾於2006年1月8日發表了一份有關國人對兩岸經貿關係的民意調查。其中，在兩岸關係上，對於中國要求兩岸協商以「一中原則」為前提，有65.2％受訪者不贊成政府接受中國的條件，贊成者為只有21.9％。

在這份民調取樣上，顯示47.3％有大專程度以上學歷，同時政黨認同上也出現國民黨(27.6％)、民進黨(11.1％)、親民黨(1.3％)、台聯(1.3％)的分配(其餘為無特殊政黨偏好)，在取樣偏藍的情形下，「一中原則」為前提，仍被台灣大多數民眾否決，再次顯示，國內「三通」爭議源於階級利益差距，而非政治立場差異。

According to this opinion poll conducted by Taiwan Thinktank and published on January 8, 2006, even KMT supporters had doubts about Taiwan’s economic strategy if it were negotiated under the “one China principle.”

Before learning the ugly details about the characters being portrayed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), my original title to this post was:

A question for Taiwan’s pan-blues: Do you prefer the advice of comic clowns to that of economic experts?

The clowns to whom I'm referring are the MOEA's two cartoon characters, Mr. EC and Ms. FA, discussed in this article. (Don’t miss my comment there.)

I originally thought the two characters, Mr. EC and Ms. FA were merely two “cheerleaders” (which I preferred to call clowns at that time) created to promote the KMT government's plan to sign an ECFA with China.

But the next day, more news broke out about the two cartoon characters: A male character named Yi-ge (一哥) and his female counterpart Fa Sao (發嫂). (click link for image)

The comics portray Yi-ge as a 45-year old Hoklo-speaking man from Tainan City who works as a salesman in an unspecified traditional industry. According to his profile, Yi-ge is a vocational school graduate who speaks “Taiwanese Mandarin” and knows very little about the proposed ECFA. He is content being a follower in all things, but when it comes to protecting himself, he “goes all-out.”

“For example, if he were ever accidentally short-changed by a clerk at a breakfast restaurant, he would do almost anything to get the money back, even if it is just NT$5,” the description says, adding that he was the kind of person who talks tough but never takes action.

His profile also says that he lacks the sensitivity for danger, lives life in a carefree manner and never cares to improve himself because he has a steady job. He has had some conversations with his colleagues about the ECFA and even though he knows nothing about the subject, he is worried about losing his job once the pact is signed.

One of Yi-ge’s acquaintances is Fa Sao, a 40-year-old Hakka from Hsinchu who works as a supervisor at an import-export company. She is described as an active, self-motivated and highly capable married woman who is fluent in English, Mandarin, Hoklo and Japanese. She is always hungry for knowledge and eager to learn more about money-management. Her profile suggests she keeps herself well-informed and is a keen observer of market trends. Fa Sao was recently promoted to company spokesman. Her knowledge of cross-strait trade has prompted her to learn all about the ECFA.

As it turns out, the comic strip was extremely offensive and derogatory. It described those who opposed the ECFA as stupid and unaware of current events, and it stereotyped people from the southern part of Taiwan (like myself) as “lower class.”

The Taiwan News published an editorial, KMT comics for ECFA insult Taiwan people, which points out that:

The most questionable claims and rationalizations cited by the Ma government to promote the pact are presented as incontestable facts despite intensive criticism by numerous independent economists […]

For example, the MOEA comic claims the implementation of the free trade agreement between the PRC and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations next January will render Taiwan exports to China uncompetitive compared to ASEAN products, implies "Made in Taiwan" goods will face "5 percent to 10 percent" tariff levies across the board and that Taiwan bosses will move factories to the PRC to "stay competitive."

In fact, most of Taiwan's exports to the PRC, especially in leading informatics and telecommunications sectors, face zero or very low tariffs, while the main product areas that will be affected are petrochemicals, which will have an edge on ASEAN makers due to lower transportation costs. Besides failing to consider that economic competitiveness can be obtained by other paths besides lower tariffs […]

Since I am a “lower class” southerner who “accidentally” speaks multiple languages and feels deeply insulted by the comic strip, I think it would be a good idea to examine Ma’s allegiance from a different angle, not from his US permanent residence / citizenship status mystery, but from how he named his children.

Ma’s real thoughts on Taiwan’s future role are revealed by how he named his two daughters: Lesley Ma (Ma Wei-chung, 馬唯中) and Kelly Ma (Ma Yuan-chung, 馬元中). This information is readily available from the Wikipedia article on Ma under the section about his Personal background.

For the benefit of English-only readers, the character 唯 means ONE AND ONLY, and the character 元 means THE FIRST as in 元首 (the first of a nation i.e., the head of a state), or THE BEGINNING as in 元旦 (the beginning of a year, i.e., New Year’s Day), or A UNIT IN COUNTING MONEY as in 一元 (one Yuan). The third character of both of their names is 中, which means CHINA, or CENTER (but obviously Ma meant China in this context). By the way, China 中國 literally means the "central nation" or "middle kingdom." The ancient Chinese people must have thought that their country was at the center of civilization, whereas the ancient Greeks must have thought Delphi was at the center of the universe.

Ma did not name his second daughter after the character 台, which would refer to TAIWAN. He named both of his daughters after the character 中 (China) to show his one hundred percent loyalty to China.

Everything in Taiwan is changing swiftly but silently, just like the renaming of the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall back to the dead dictator’s name. Are Taiwanese blind followers of their leader? If not, don’t wait until you wake up one day that your leader announces his title has been changed to a regional governor.

Refuse Ma’s push to sign the ECFA, and support only a clearly studied and proposed future economic plan for Taiwan through many forums to be organized by experts in the field.

Related reading:
In Chinese:
Taiwan Echo’s ECFA 漫畫說帖：一個撕裂社會、製造族群對立的文宣

Taiwan Echo, again, on the fake apology from Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (但是這次，就讓我爽爽快快地幹個徹底吧！)

In English:
The View from Taiwan’s ECFA/China Investment Round Up, More on the ECFA’s Cartoons: Guest Post, and MOEA Exploits Ethnic Stereotypes to sell ECFA

The Far-Eastern Sweet Potato’s How to insult a people

Time Magazine’s Taiwan: How to Reboot the Dragon

An article in the Taipei Times mentions how MOEA minister Yiin Chii-ming's "apology" places the blame on others

ECFA referendum faces a race against the clock

Loa Iok-sin of the Taipei Times reports the latest progress on the DPP's ECFA referendum petition:

“The CEC has confirmed that the referendum petition submitted by [DPP chairperson] Tsai Ing-wen [蔡英文] was signed by 123,462 qualified voters, and thus has reached the threshold set forth in the Referendum Act [公民投票法],” the CEC said in a press release after a meeting yesterday.

The CEC therefore decided to forward the petition to the Executive Yuan’s referendum review committee for further review,” it said....

In the second stage, a referendum proposal approved by the Cabinet referendum review committee must be endorsed by more than 5 percent of the number of voters who voted in the last presidential election — or 866,000 people in this case — to make it to the polling stations.

The Liberty Times adds an important piece of additional information -- the Executive Yuan's referendum review committee is not yet put together, but the cabinet has promised it would make it's suggested list of nominations available to Ma by the end of July.

So the DPP is facing an uphill struggle to get the referendum passed before the ECFA negotiations begin in October, especially since they're likely to be concluded before year's end:

Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) said yesterday that he and Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming (陳德銘) had agreed to initiate official cross-strait talks on an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) in October....

His comments came after he met Chen and discussed the ECFA issue for the first time this week in Singapore on the sidelines of a two-day APEC forum there.

“Due to the strong willingness on both sides … The official discussion can be completed sometime before the end of this year,” he said.

The scope and time table for ECFA talks have been largely opaque up until now, with the President, Mainland Affairs Council and Economic Ministry all suggesting vague or contradictory dates at different times over the last few months. But spelling out a precise and ambitious schedule, as Yiin just has, is a fair sign we will be seeing the pact before year's end, and that the resulting petition may not gain enough signatures or jump through technical hurdles in time to make a difference -- especially if the government decides to check the validity of all the signatures in stage two.

DPP ECFA referendum ad

With free English translation by Tim Maddog

Taiwan's DPP has a great ad to enlighten the public about the lies being told by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) about an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) which his government insists will be signed with China. See what Ma says about "sovereignty," and compare it to the direct words of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) about "complete unification" [sic -- the correct word is "annexation" (併吞)]. Cringe in horror as you hear Taiwan's Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) "explain" why he can't talk about the details of this ECFA.

Here it is with English titles (original version below):


0:35 YouTube video: "DPP ECFA referendum ad - with English titles"
Here's the original version in Mandarin:


0:35 YouTube video: "DPP ECFA referendum ad"
For a more complete description (in English) and more links, go to the YouTube pages for either video (links below each video).

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A peck of pixeled peppers for Peter Piper to pick: Taiwan, 台灣, DPP, 民進黨, Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, 經濟合作架構協議, ECFA, referendum, 公投, YouTube, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, Liu Chao-shiuan, 劉兆玄, Wen Jiabao, 溫家寶, annexation, 併吞, sovereignty, 主權

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!

Referendums on the Referendum Law and the ECFA

It is my understanding that so far the representatives that participated in the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) negotiations were not non-partisan -- all were from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). If the KMT government had any good intentions or plans for the future of Taiwan, they could have assembled and sent a team of Taiwan’s economic experts and scholars to the ECFA negotiation table.

Since the ECFA is a tool to be used by the KMT to sell out Taiwan’s economic strength and independence in order to pave a smooth road for future political integration with China, the DPP should be extra cautious.

The DPP seems to be falling into the enemy’s trap, and the people of Taiwan who are not so familiar with the issue but who trust the DPP’s judgment are being taken along into that trap.

A more correct approach, in my opinion, would be to sort out the priorities of the topics of the various referendums.

The first priority should be the Referendum Law itself, then the ECFA. Otherwise, the ECFA referendum will be a waste of human resources and will again result in a heart-breaking outcome.

The Referendum Law itself needs to be amended by a referendum first, not by the Legislative Yuan because the LY is the source of all problems, blocking Taiwan’s stability and growth.

Look at how the referendum law was formed back in 2003.

Read the article "The real significance of Taiwan's referendum law" written December 2, 2003 by Laurence Eyton, and take notes of the following (if you read the whole op-ed, you will have to scroll down quite a bit to find the text below):

…the [DPP] only complained about the shortcomings of the new law because major elements of the DPP's bill were omitted.

The pan-blues were not, however, prepared to pass the DPP's bill. Instead, they wrote their own and introduced it into the legislature too. During the summer, inter-party haggling caused the session to run out of time before the bill passed. But this time around - instead of the parties trying to agree on a reconciled version of the two different bills before voting - they simply voted clause by clause. The result was that while a couple of DPP-written clauses made it to the version that finally passed, most of the new act became a pan-blue creation.

Unlike the DPP's initial proposal, in the new act the executive [Bloggers note: President? or the Executive Yuan?] has no right to initiate a referendum, only the legislature [Blogger’s note: so easy!] and a popular initiative [Blogger’s note: the procedure is so difficult and time and resource consuming to collect people’s signatures] can do so, and only the legislature can call a referendum on a constitutional matter.

So instead of wasting time and resources on the ECFA, first tackle the referendum law itself, and let the people vote for the new proposed versions, and allowing each voter to support only one version, either the pan-green version or the pan-blue version.

If each party in Taiwan were to have its own version, there would be too many versions, and it would be too confusing for the public, so I think it’s best to have only two versions: a pan-blue version and a pan-green version.

I am a pan-green person, but I am not a DPP party member, and I am sure a lot of Taiwanese are just like me, they love Taiwan, but they are simply pan-green and nothing else.

In order to present the best version to win Taiwan voters’ approval, both parties will have to find their best scholars and experts to put a complete set of good clauses into the new referendum law.

The pan-green version can be initiated by anyone in the pan-green camp, not necessary a DPP party member. Similarly, the pan-blue version can be initiated by any supporter of the pan-blue camp, not necessary a KMT party member.

Each proposed set of clauses should address the same list of topics, and the topics should be agreed on by each side in advance.

For example:

Topic 1: the issue of who can initiate a referendum,

Topic 2: the issue of who can amend the referendum law in the future, in case the existing referendum law is found to be containing faults

Topic 3: the issue of what percentage of voter turnout is necessary in order to accept the validity of a referendum.

Topic 4: the issue of whether the constitutional matters should only be initiated by the Legislative Yuan

Topic 5: …

And so on.

In my opinion, the ECFA referendum should have been:

你是否同意國民黨想與中國簽訂之經濟合作架構協議(ECFA)應先交付台灣人民討論定稿否則無效?

Translation:
Yes or No: Do you agree that the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) wants to sign with China should first be presented to the citizens of Taiwan for discussion and approval or else be invalidated?

517 Protest Ad - 呷飽沒？ 特權呷飽飽 台灣去了了

Hungry for justice and democracy?


0:59 YouTube video: "517 Protest Ad - 呷飽沒？ 特權呷飽飽 台灣去了了"
Translation: Have you eaten yet? [a typical Taiwanese greeting]
The privileged fill their bellies while Taiwanese starve
What's a "517"?
On May 17, 2009, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP, 民進黨) will hold a rally on Taipei's Ketagalan Blvd. (凱達格蘭大道) to protest the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) government's pro-China policies which continue to hurt the people of Taiwan.

Since Ma took office in May 2008, 1 million people have lost their jobs, raising the measurable unemployment to 6 percent. But that doesn't tell the whole story.

Still others (like my wife) are "partially unemployed" -- that is, their hours have been cut. Others have it worse than that -- they are on forced unpaid leave.

Claiming that they want China to help rescue the economy, the Ma government continues to push policies that the public has no information about, and they keep bringing Taiwan closer and closer to being annexed by authoritarian China. They even want to sign an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA, 經濟合作架構協議) with China, even though China will only use such an agreement to trap Taiwan and gain benefits exclusively for themselves.

Read more about that here:
EDITORIAL: ECFA: An instrument of betrayal

At the same time, the Ma government continues pushing for changes to the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法), but their proposed changes to the current law will make it more like the even more oppressive laws of Singapore.

The "fortunate sons" (and daughters and spouses) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, KMT, 中國國民黨) aristocracy (貴族, the so-called "high-class mainlanders") get all the benefits while the people of Taiwan are growing hungrier and hungrier -- and not only for food.

Are you just gonna sit there and take it?!

Get it while it's hot!
Use your right to protest while you still can! Show the world that all the news that paints Ma Ying-jeou as "China-friendly" in contrast to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) -- whom the media constantly painted as a "troublemaker" merely because he tried to protect Taiwan's sovereignty -- is pure propaganda to cover Ma's betrayal of Taiwan.

The only way to change things is to let the world see with their own eyes that Ma is not a "popular president."

Get your asses out there -- by the millions! -- on Sunday, May 17, 2009, and be an important part of Taiwan's history.

Times, places, themes...
Here's a map and some info about the routes:


517 march route map
(Click to enlarge)
* Route 1 (Guard Sovereignty) begins on Zhongxiao E. Rd. at the Dinghao Shopping Plaza

* Route 2 (Protect the Unemployed) begins on Minzu W. Rd. at the Zhongshan Soccer Stadium

* Route 3 (Secure Taiwan) begins at the corner of Xinsheng and Roosevelt Roads at the main gate of National Taiwan University

* Route 4 (Help the Underprivileged) begins on Bangka/Manka Avenue (in Mandarin, it's "Mengjia," but it should be pronounced in Hoklo) at the Wanhua Train Station

Here's a Google map showing all four routes.

Here's more info from the DPP web site which includes other ad spots, images, maps, and English translations of the slogans related to the themes of the protest:

「馬英九 你吃飽沒？」Are you satisfied?/Are you stuffed?

「保台灣 顧主權 救失業 護弱勢」Secure Taiwan, Guard Sovereignty, Protect Unemployed, Help Unprivileged

「反傾中 護台灣」 China no! Taiwan yes!

「反對無能政府」KMT, Kick out!/Kick out the KMT!

「反對一中市場」One China market, Go Away!

「ECFA要公投」E-C-F-A! We want a referendum! / Referendum! E-C-F-A!

「堅持主權 守護台灣」Stand for Sovereignty, Take care of Taiwan

「台灣 加油」 Viva Taiwan!

「民進黨 加油」Gear Up, DPP!

Marchers should gather at 2:00 PM and begin marching at 3:00. This will conclude with a rally on Ketagalan Blvd. (in front of the Presidential Office) at 5:00. After the rally, DPP members will stage a 24-hour sit-in.

Got posters?
Check out the designs on this page, or create your own and mail them to me (address is in the sidebar).

FURTHER READING:
* Lyrics to "Fortunate Son" on the Creedence Online web site

* A Wikipedia article about the song

* Snopes disproves the meme that the song was inspired by Al Gore, Jr. in an article which contains this poignant quote from John Fogerty himself:

Nixon was always saying 'peace with honor' and 'my country, love it or leave it,' but we knew better 'cause the guy was obviously evil.

Remember that Dick, Nixon -- the crook who sold us all out to Mao Zedong? Ma Ying-jeou is the new Nixon.

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Pixels for your brainscreen: Taiwan, 台灣, Ma Ying-jeou, 馬英九, Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, 經濟合作架構協議, ECFA, Assembly and Parade Law, 集會遊行法, protest, 抗議

Cross-posted at It's Not Democracy, It's A Conspiracy!