Taiwan lawmakers brawl over China trade pact
A Taiwanese lawmaker required stitches after he was hit in the eye with a small clock
TAIPEI — Several Taiwanese lawmakers were injured on Thursday as rival politicians clashed on the first day of a parliamentary debate on a controversial new trade pact with China. Wu Yu-sheng, a member of the ruling Kuomintang party, was hospitalised after being hit in the face with what appeared to be a small clock thrown from a distance, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.
"He was bleeding after he was hit in the corner of the eye, and doctors had to stitch him up," Premier Wu Den-yih, also of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang, told reporters. Another legislator from the anti-China opposition Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, was also sent to hospital for treatment after he said he was thrown off the podium by a group of opponents. "It hurt a lot," he said.
At least two more lawmakers reported minor injuries during the clash, which erupted immediately after the meeting started and meant there was no actual debate on Thursday. Negotiators from Taiwan and China signed the ECFA last week, in the boldest step yet towards reconciliation between the former rivals, who split after the end of civil war in 1949.
Kuomintang politicians have hailed the ECFA, saying it will bolster the island's economy, but the opposition claims it will undermine Taiwan's de facto independence. Clashes had been expected as lawmakers interrupted their recess for the week-long debate, with the DPP insisting the agreement be reviewed article by article, a demand flatly rejected by the Kuomintang.
Lawmakers told AFP it was unlikely that parliament would attempt a debate Friday on the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), and would instead look at other political issues. Another anti-Chinese party has filed a second referendum proposal over ECFA after the first was turned down by the government's Referendum Review Committee.
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