萬國法律事務所

The Cross-strait Service Trade Pact was signed by Taiwan and China on June 21st, and many Taiwanese civil groups requested Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council to provide an assessment of the potential impact on Taiwan’s economy to the Legislative Yuan and to hold public hearings to build a public consensus. Cross-Strait Agreement Watch convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) stated at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan that “the agreement should be reviewed item-by-item by the Legislative Yuan with the participation of representatives from all industries affected, and the pact should not become effective before the completion of the legislative review”.

Mr. Lai further pointed out that, taking the FTA between Korea and the US as an example, after signing in 2007, the Korean government had spent five years negotiating with all industries before the FTA came into force in 2012. He opined that Taiwan’s democracy should be maintained, and that the pact should be authorized by the Legislative Yuan before taking effect.

Taiwan’s Labor Front secretary-general, Son Yu-lian (孫友聯), stated that according to the agreement, Chinese workers will be allowed to work in Taiwan, which will cause a deterioration of the current labor conditions and lower the level of labor salaries. He criticized the signing of the pact and stated that the signing of the same without thorough discussion and consideration by the government is similar to the act of drunk driving.

Under the pact, 64 Taiwanese service industries will be opened to Chinese investment, while China will open up 80 industries to Taiwanese investment. Mr. Son argued that Chinese investors should sign an affidavit promising not to provide political donations to any politicians in order not to affect Taiwan’s politics.

As to the press and publishing industry, Mr. Son pointed out that there are many restrictions on media-related industries in China, and that as such, freedom of the press should be discussed and negotiated with the opening of the press and publishing. The Taiwan media should, he stated, be allowed to enjoy freedom of the press and publishing rights in China.

The Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general, Tsai Chi-Hsun (蔡季勳), worried that if the second type of telecommunications services, including store and forward network, stores and retrieval networks, and electronic data interchange services are open to China, Taiwan’s freedom of the press may be affected by China’s notorious keywords filtering and blocking practices, demonstrated in Chinese policies such as the Great Firewall of China or the Golden Shield project.

Finally, with respect to allowing Chinese investment in Taiwanese hospitals, the National Health Insurance Civic Surveillance Alliance in Taiwan pointed out that the current health care issues are low quality and lack of health care providers, but not in the number of hospitals. However, despite the slow health care revolution, the Government, driven by the need for funds, still signed the pact, and in doing so, has made a commodity of and is marketing health care. This will likely result in a further deterioration of Taiwan’s health care.