Taipei, students announce end of Parliament occupation
Taipei ( AsiaNews) - The student movement that is occupying Taiwan's Parliament to protest against the "open" trade agreements with mainland China stated that "they will lift their siege" on April 10 . The group, which began its protest on March 18 , 2014, announced the end of the protest after talks with the Speaker of Parliament, Wang Jin- pyng , and the assurances of President Ma Ying- jeou .
The stalemate was resolved by Wang, Sunday, April 6 who visited students in the parliament chambers, where he greeted, thanked and encouraged them. In the press conference after the meeting he said that there will be no parliamentary discussion of the Agreement without a prior supervisory law (两岸 监督 条例 完成 立法 前,不 召开 服 贸 协商 会议) , as requested by the students themselves. On the strength of this promise , he then invited the students to vacate the parliament so it could resume normal legislative activities.
The youth protests were sparked by the Cross- Strait Trade Agreement Service (两岸 服务 贸易 协议) that Taipei is discussing with Beijing. It is the continuation of the ECFA , Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement -(两岸 经济 合作 架构 协议) signed in 2010 with the goal of breaking the trade barriers between the island and mainland China. If the agreement is signed, the mainland will open 80 service sectors to Taiwanese investment while Taipei will allow mainland investment access to 64 sectors.
Many Taiwanese are concerned about the fate of
small businesses, which may succumb to the impact produced by the commercial
competitiveness of continental enterprises and youth employment that would be
crushed by the competition of Chinese labor. After a heated standoff , the
government backed
down March 3 and announced a new decree requires the government
negotiate agreements with China "on the principles of equality, respect,
mutual benefits and protection of national safety".
In
addition, two Kuomintang MPs ( the ruling Nationalist Party) have apologized for "being the main cause
of the protest". Chang
Ching-chung (张庆忠, who on March 17 announced after just 30 seconds
of debate that he had the approval of the first passage of the trade agreement)
and Lin Hung-chi (林鸿 池,
chairman of the KMT Political Committee) , have submitted their resignation . Both
were rejected by the president and party chief, Ma.
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