The political context is this. China wants to sign a cross-strait trade agreement with Taiwan. It has very favorable terms because it has a political agenda and the Taiwan administration wants to sign. Many legislators don’t. There is a disconnect. Usually when we sign trade agreements with New Zealand or Japan or whatever other countries there is a process. The legislation sets up a committee, there is a public hearing,… the usual process. But because constitutionally in Taiwan Beijing is part of Taiwan and we haven’t changed our constitution yet, therefore as per the Taiwan constitution this is more like signing a pact with a domestic local city. And any administration pact with the domestic city government doesn’t have to go through the legislation - of course because otherwise the legislation would have to go through infinite things. So with this constitutional loophole the administration argues that the legislation has no say in this agreement because Beijing is part of Taiwan. Then they could sign whatever they want. The legislation could have a public hearing but after a 30 days of inaction it automatically passes because this is a city level domestic agreement.

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