China insists that the One China Principle -- (1) There's only one China; (2) This China is PROC; (3) Taiwan is part of China -- is the precondition to sign any agreement with Taiwan.
Ma Ying-jeou insists -- against the view of whole world -- that the term "China" refers to the ROC, the current government in Taiwan, but not PROC.
No matter what, both China and Ma agree with the concept of "one-China", and Taiwan is not a state of her own but just part of that one-China.
Never have we heard that Ma opposes the One China Principle. There's no doubt that he wouldn't hesitate to sign any agreement with China under the premise of One China Principle.
Recently, Ma has repeatedly claimed that the ECFA between Taiwan and China has already been decided (勢在必行, which means "must be done". Google with these keywords: 馬英九 ECFA 勢在必行) and he will not accept a referendum be held over it because (1) we can't run a referendum on every single subject (TT interview) and (2) it has already got the support of majority in Taiwan.
Taiwanese never ask to hold the referendum on every single subject. Ma's excuse is simply a ridiculous generalization to hide his anti-democracy mindset. (Michael's)
And the claim of majority support doesn't come close either.
A poll announced yesterday shows that 80.2% of Taiwanese oppose ECFA, or similar economic agreement, under one-china framework.
Ma Ying-jeou also strongly opposes the idea that the ECFA has to be approved by the Legislative Yuan before signing. He insists on signing it first, then send the signed agreement to Legislative Yuan for "review."
He argues that under his administration any agreement signed with China will not take effect if it is not approved by the LY.
That's an out right lie.
Just 4 months ago, Chiang-Chen Agreement (江陳協議), the agreement signed with China without the approval of LY, took effect "automatically" in December 13th. It wasn't even reviewed by the LY (江陳會協議交協商 今自動生效).
That is, the agreement took effect behind people's back -- without any review by the people, let alone an approval.
If Ma "respects people's opinion" as he honey-tongues repeatedly, and sincerely thinks that LY should be the guard to any agreement his government signs with China, then why does he insists on signing it first before sending it to the LY ?
It seems that Ma Ying-jeou is again playing the same trick of "automatically taking effect" as that in the Chiang-Chen Agreement case in order to avoid the monitoring of ECFA by Taiwan people.
But this time, the people might not cut him a slack. The aforementioned poll shows that as much as 89.2% think that the ECFA should be discussed and monitored by LY before it is signed. This high rate is non-partisan -- even 88% of pro-blue supporters disagree with Ma's tactic.
On the ECFA referendum issue, the poll result also slaps Ma on the face -- 63.5 % think that the ECFA should be decided by a referendum.
Check out how far Ma Ying-jeou goes into the la la land from the entire poll shown below. Any error in translation is on me.
| Poll on Ma Ying-jeou's China approach (Mar 13, 2009) Note: the right column (in blueish background) represents Ma Ying-jeou's position on cross-Strait issues. | ||
| 1. Know about CECA/ECFA | Yes: 44.1% | No: 44.7% (Never heard: 11.2%) |
| 2. If Taiwan doesn't strengthen the economic cooperation with China, will Taiwan be excluded by the international economy and trade community ? | No: 56.8% | Yes: 37.6% |
| 3. Will further economic cooperation with China make Taiwan over-dependent in China and jeopardize Taiwan's autonomy? | Yes: | No: |
| All | 48.8% | 43.3% |
| Pro-blue | 32% | 63% |
| Pro-green+non-partisan | 77% | (n/a) |
| 4. Are you worried that the cross-Strait economic cooperation will bring large influx of low-cost daily and agriculture products, causing negative effects on Taiwan's traditional business or even unemployment? | Yes: 70.7% | No: 27.4% |
| 5. Should the ruling party discuss with the opposition parties to get consensus before negotiating issues like CECA/ECFA with China ? | Yes: 78.2% | No: 17.8% |
| 6. Should the CECA/ECFA be discussed and monitored by the Legislative Yuan before it is signed ? | Yes: | No: |
| All | 89.2% | 6.7% |
| Pro-blue | 88.0% | (n/a) |
| 7. Agree that signing CECA/ECFA might involve in the sovereignty, so should be determined by a referendum ? | Yes: 63.8% | No: 32.3% |
| 8. Have the confidence that Ma's government is capable of standing up for Taiwan's rights and interests in cross-Strait negotiations? | No: 53.6% | Yes: 41.3% |
| 9. Can accept the signing of economic cooperation agreements with China under the precondition of "One China Principle"? (Note: The trend of response is the same for non-partisan, green and blue) | No: 80.2% | Yes: 13.3% |
| 10. Should the economy and trade cooperation with China be moderately controlled, or should all restrictions be lifted? | Moderate Control: 81.7% | All lifted: 12.8% |
| Source: DPP's announcement on 3/13/09, "81.7%民眾認為兩岸經貿應適度管制 馬政府必須正視人民的聲音" (Translated to English by Taiwan_Echo) | ||
Note: Check out Tim Maddog's recent post on a poll (Ma Ying-jeou's spokesman distorts the truth) that shows how Ma's government cheats her people by advocating Taiwanese opinion that is completely opposite to the reality.
3 comments:
Need to give reference to this:
Recently, Ma has repeatedly claimed that the ECFA between Taiwan and China has already been decided and he will not accept a referendum be held over it because (1) we can't run a referendum on every single subject (不能每個議題都公投) and (2) it has already got the support of majority in Taiwan.
Made some quick links. Will add more if I find more.
China's part in the world grows bigger and bigger now,i don't think Taiwan will be a formal country in future,mainland and Taiwan should both stick to One-China policy,and discuss economical issues first.When more exchange occurs between two sides,people's ideas will be changed too.Let our future generation to resolve the sensitive political disaggrement.
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