MCLC: Wang Jin-pyng makes overture

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Wang Jin-pyng makes overture
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Source: Sinosphere blog, NYT (4/7/14):
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/07/governing-party-figure-makes
-overture-in-taiwan-standoff/


Governing Party Figure Makes Overture in Taiwan Standoff
By AUSTIN RAMZY 

As the occupation of Taiwan’s legislature by student-led demonstrators
approaches three weeks, a new concession by a senior governing party
politician has offered the clearest glimpse thus far of a potential
compromise.

The legislative speaker, Wang Jin-pyng, visited the legislature on Sunday
and said he agreed with the demonstrators that a new law offering greater
legislative oversight of agreements with China should be approved before
negotiations are resumed on a stalled trade pact with China.

About 200 students and activists stormed the legislature
<http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/19/opponents-of-china-trade-de
al-occupy-taiwans-legislature/> on March 18 after a lawmaker from the
governing party, the Kuomintang, pushed the trade pact onto the
legislative floor for approval, skipping a promised item-by-item review.
The protesters have remained since then, and large crowds of supporters
have swelled outside at times. A March 30 demonstration saw as many as
half a million people turn out in support.

The demonstrators have criticized efforts by the Kuomintang to push
through the trade pact without the promised review. Many have expressed
concerns that the agreement, which opens up dozens of service industries
to cross-straits investment, would harm businesses in Taiwan and allow
greater influence from mainland China, which considers Taiwan part of its
territory.

The protesters have demanded that the trade pact be pulled back and that a
new law be passed to allow greater oversight of such agreements. President
Ma Ying-jeou has refused to withdraw the trade agreement but has expressed
support for oversight legislation. Mr. Ma has called for the agreement
with Beijing to be passed as soon as possible, a process that would
inevitably be slowed if negotiations on an oversight law come first. As
speaker, Mr. Wang is responsible for convening meetings between parties, a
powerful tool in organizing the legislative agenda.

Some Kuomintang legislators criticized Mr. Wang’s statement on Sunday and
said that it was made without consulting the party’s legislative caucus.
Mr. Wang is considered to be a moderate figure capable of reaching across
party lines and also a rival of the president. Last year, Mr. Ma, who is
head of the Kuomintang, attempted to oust Mr. Wang from the party and his
position as speaker but was blocked by a court order.

The chairman of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, Su
Tseng-chang, praised Mr. Wang’s compromise to the students. A leading
student protest group, the Black Island Nation Youth Front, issued a
statement welcoming Mr. Wang’s overture, saying they hoped he would
“continue to play an active role observing and responding to the people’s
will.” The students, however, have not responded to Mr. Wang’s call that
they end their occupation of the legislature.

“Generally speaking, people see such a move as a constructive one, towards
a solution,” said Hsu Szu-chien, a political science scholar at Academia
Sinica, a state-financed research institution in Taipei. “So far students
haven’t given any negative responses. I think they are still trying hard
to reach a consensus among themselves.”