Protest against the Service Trade Agreement in July 2013. Photo from the coolloud.org. CC: NC. The Taiwanese and Chinese governments have signed a number of bilateral agreements on economic cooperation since 2010, with the latest Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement signed in June 2013. As the negotiation between the two governments have taken place in a black-box, many are worried that unrestricted entry of mainland capital poses a threat to Taiwanese culture, freedom of expression and even national security even though China is a huge market for Taiwanese businesses. To address the concerns, civic group Democratic Front Against Cross-Strait Trade in Services Agreement has led several protests and convinced the Legislative Yuan to hold public hearings [zh] on the latest Service Trade Agreement signed [zh] in June 2013. The public hearings have started in the Legislative Yuan in November 2013. So far more than 14 rounds have been held and more people from different service sectors will be invited to offer their view. The open discussion has raised public awareness on the political consequences of the economic cooperation. Indeed and many concerned citizens have picked up the discussion on their own blogs and websites. Unequal agreement Upon reviewing the terms in the latest trade agreement signed between Taiwan and China, professor Show-Ling Jang from the economics department of National Taiwan University pointed out [zh, pdf] that due to the huge difference in the scale of each country's economy and the “hidden rules” embedded in the terms, the agreement is neither fair nor equal: 中國還有各式各樣的潛規則，讓外國競爭對手無法在中國公平競爭。例如服貿協議明定中國人須擁有股權，未來勢將強迫我國企業進行技術轉移，將智慧財產權交給中國合夥人。 There are tons of hidden rules in China and foreign competitors cannot play a fair game in China. For example, in the Service Trade Agreement, the terms require [foreign investors] to build partnership and share holdings with their mainland business partner. Such an arrangement will force our corporations to transfer their technology and intellectual property to their Chinese partners. 此外，中資來台並非單純商業考量，還夾雜政治戰略目的，我方竟開放攸關國家安全的服務業（如通訊服務業、交通運輸業等）， 十分離譜! In addition, Chinese capital is not purely commercial when entering Taiwan. There are political and strategic considerations. It is outrageous that the Taiwanese government has opted to open up services that concern national security, such as communication and transportation services [for Chinese capital and investment]. Political satire of the “black box” agreements signed between Taiwan and China governments by etblue Censorship practice erodes freedom of speech The authoritarian nature of the Chinese government and its censorship of expression has worried publication industries in Taiwan. During the public hearings, many publishers and bookstore owners believed that the agreement will end up eroding freedom of expression in Taiwan. For example, the owner of a small bookstore, Shiao-Shiao, pointed out [zh] in the hearings that unless the publishers were submissive to China's censorship, their books would never be distributed in mainland China: 中國政府對於出版管制嚴格，中國的出版業由國營企業掌握，少數小型出版者也要向國營企業買「書號」，中國不可能開放台灣出版業者進入中國市場。政府在政策上有利財團化經營模式，將影響現行多元的文化環境。 The Chinese government has very strict control over publication as the publishers in China are all national corporations. The few small independent publishers need to buy “book numbers” from the national corporations to publish their books. There is no way that China's government will allow Taiwanese publishers to enter China. Whereas in Taiwan, our government's policy favors big publishers, [once the publication industry is open to China capital] the cultural diversity in Taiwan would be affected. In fact, as pointed out by movie director Hong-Hong, upon entering mainland China, Taiwanese cultural industries have started to self-censor their work: 中國並不是自由民主國家。近年來台灣的文化業進入中國之後，已經出現言論自我審查的現象。 China is not a free and democratic country. In recent years, many Taiwanese working in culture-related industries have entered China, and we can see how they have started to self-censor their works. Fu-Yi Chou, the CEO of Laiho Culture Foundation and Museum, made a suggestion during the public hearings regarding the exemption of culture-related industries from trade agreements: 「文化例外」已成為世界共識：二○○五年，在法國、加拿大主導下，聯合國教科文組織UNESCO通過「文化多樣性公約」。「文化例外」早已是國際周知的事，為何我們的政府完全置之不理？為何文化部也完全沒聲音？那麼又何必談文化立國、文化興國？ “L’exception culturelle” is a worldwide consensus now. France and Canada led the discussion in UNESCO and passed the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in 2005.