May 2, 2010
Reported by Sam Lee
Written by Lydia Ma

PCT is one of the sponsors behind a new petition to make ECFA a referendum issue. During a press conference on April 23, PCT General Secretary Andrew Chang urged churches to continue amassing signed petitions. Taiwan's former President Lee Teng-hui and former Vice-President Annette Lu also attended the press conference.

Former President Lee underscored it was important to understand why Taiwan and China were signing an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) instead of a free trade agreement (FTA) because the difference between the two is the reason why ECFA will be fatal for Taiwan. He said an FTA is an agreement between two sovereign countries, whereas an ECFA is an unequal arrangement making Taiwan subordinate to China.

This anti-ECFA initiative is not merely a General Assembly initiative because many Christians and local PCT churches have joined the campaign against ECFA. According to reports, a candlelight march against ECFA took place on April 24 at Kaohsiung Central Park and many members from Cheng-Chung Presbyterian Church attended the march.

One of the conveners of this march, Liu Kuo-song, is a seeker from Cheng-Chung Church. He is often heard on radio shows or seen at various parks raising awareness on the impact of ECFA on Taiwan. He retired from a state-owned corporation after having worked at private corporations and is well aware of the challenges facing Taiwanese manufacturing companies.

When Liu worked at state-owned corporations, he noticed many pro-KMT corporations had invested a lot of capital in China because they had never identified with Taiwan. He is convinced the Ma administration is pushing for ECFA and setting the stage toward economic integration to facilitate trade between China and major corporations by greatly reducing production costs. But the average citizen will bear the brunt of negative effects and fallouts arising from ECFA.

PCT General Assembly joined this round of anti-ECFA campaign in March and has so far collected 3,000 signatures. However, since many local churches and members have also mailed petitions directly to their local representatives, this figure might be understated.

The total number of petitions collected has currently exceeded 86,000, the minimum amount required to pass the first phase of the campaign. Despite a good start, PCT General Assembly continues to encourage churches to keep up their efforts in collecting signatures because standing up to policies that harm Taiwan is an integral part of PCT's confession of faith.

Taiwan Church News