Taiwanese Mount Massive Weekend Rally Over China Trade Pact
Desiree Q. Sison | | Mar 31, 2014 05:39 AM EDT |
A round of fresh rallies staged by Taiwanese students and activists erupted in Taipei and several locations in Hong Kong over the weekend renewing their demand for the Taiwanese government to cancel the trade service agreements it entered into with China.
The pact is yet to be ratified by Taiwanese lawmakers and students and activists have been pressuring them to rescind the agreement claiming that it would not be good to Taiwan's economy.
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Already, China's businessmen are looking forward to the ratification of the service trade pact saying that it would benefit both countries' economies.
Taiwan President Ma Ying Jeou, on his part, believes that the agreement will generate more jobs and will be beneficial to the economy.
Chinese negotiators in Taiwan said they will be disappointed if the pact will not be ratified saying that both economies depend on each other for support.
The trade agreement came on the heels of the 2010 economic cooperation agreement that aims to foster cooperation between countries in terms of trade exchanges such as the pact between China and Taiwan.
Under the agreement, Mainland China will provide 80 of its service sectors to Taiwan whereas Taiwan will open up 64 sectors to China.
The Taiwanese students and demonstrators, however, believe the opposite saying that only China will benefit from it and that lawmakers are expediting undemocratically the ratification of the pact.
On Sunday, thousands of Taiwanese activists demonstrated near the lawmakers' building bearing placards and wearing black shirts and holding sunflowers as Taiwan's symbol.
The demonstrations were peaceful with others chanting and singing. No untoward incident happened.
They demanded more transparency in Taiwan's future trade dealings as well as the establishment of a financial monitoring system and the creation of a citizen constitutional meeting.
The controversial pact was signed in June but has been sitting in the lawmakers' office for about four months until steps have been taken to expedite its ratification.
Protests and rallies soon erupted, with demonstrators accusing the lawmakers of undemocratically speeding up its ratification. They said they will not stop their protests until the Taiwan government gives in to their demands.
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