April 8, 2014

Dear Editor,

Reference is made to Mr. Bill Lindo’s commentary titled “Global financial system about to blow up again!” in the AMANDALA Belize Newspaper, April 6, 2014, concerning the global financial system.

In his article, Mr. Lindo also mentioned recent student protests in Taiwan and put this matter side by side with the change of government in Ukraine. We hope to point it out that it is not precise to analogize Taiwan’s matter with what happened in Ukraine.

The protesting students of Taiwan were concerned that the services pact with China will undermine their opportunity of employment in the future and broaden the difference between the rich and the poor in Taiwan. They believed that the legislative process of the pact was not transparent, and hoped to catch the government’s attention to their concern by means of occupying the legislative chamber of the parliament.

The government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) has been very accommodating to the protesters. The ruling party’s caucus in the Legislative Yuan (the Republic of China Taiwan’s parliament) has agreed to return the services agreement to legislative committee for article-by-article review. In addition, the Executive Yuan (Taiwan’s highest administrative authority) has submitted a draft oversight mechanism for cross-strait negotiations for legislative approval.

Following the April 7th announcement by student leaders that protesters would withdraw from the legislative chamber on April 10th, the matter will be back to its normal track and the controversy will be addressed step by step.

Thank you for your concern. We hope to keep you abreast of further developments as they occur.

Sincerely,
Henry Fan
Counselo