Round up 7/30

President and soon to be KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou has once again called for a meeting with DPP chair Tsai Ing-wen, ostensibly aimed at hashing out a common domestic approach to cross-strait foreign policy. She also points out that the KMT has sent no formal invitation or indication of the full scope of talks to the DPP for serious consideration, but rather has just gone to the media a few times over the last year.

Tsai Ing-wen has responded by calling for President Ma to first end the KMT-CCP platform, a murky party to party communications mechanism that pre-dated resumed semi-official negotiations. Forums held as part of that KMT-CCP platform have been widely criticized in pro-Taiwan media.

Meanwhile, here's a good round up by Taipei Times of the dueling reports on the impact of the ECFA. I believe both sides are distorting likely effects to advance their argument and make the ECFA more or less popular. If all it consists of is reducing tariffs, as long as enough key sectors are protected, I'd probably be happy. I find the prospect of relaxing rules on Chinese investment in Taiwan to be much scarier, and that is already allowed. So I am not sure much damage the ECFA can really do.

Meanwhile, with the KMT still insisting the the ECFA is not a political agreement and will not include the words "One China," the DPP points out that the whole deal is still being discussed in a "One China" framework and on the pre-condition that Taiwan accepts "One China," making KMT denials rather absurd.