Moving on to politics, The sixth Chiang-Chen meeting, originally scheduled for mid-December, has been postponed until at least the 20th of this month, due to insufficient preparation time. The Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan has confirmed that an agreement on cross-strait investment protection will not be signed this time, but she refused to attribute it to sovereignty issues between both sides. The cross-strait investment protection agreement has been confirmed not to be part of the 6th Chiang-Chen meeting agenda with speculations being that Beijing is not willing to agree to Taiwan's suggestion of having foreign arbitration involved when disputes arise. The Mainland Affairs Council minister said it is not the reason but was due to different laws and regulations of each side of the strait, while angered many lawmakers. DPP legislator Chiu Yi-ying was mad during interpellation as usual while MAC minister Lai defended herself. Even KMT lawmakers said that the official point of view is different from the reality, hinting to Lai that international arbitration issue cannot be avoided. The Straits Exchange Foundation and Association for Relations Across Taiwan Strait are to hold a pre-summit meeting in Shanghai on the 14th, while the originally scheduled Chiang-Chen summit will be pushed back from the original dates of the 16th through the 18th of this month. Though the cross-strait investment protection agreement is not part of the 6th Chiang-Chen meeting, it will be included in discussion. The SEF pointed out that, besides the cross-strait medical cooperation agreement on the table, all economic departments' high-ranking officials from each side of the strait will be present at the summit, aiming to complete the cross-strait investment protection agreement signing process at the 7th Chiang-Chen summit meeting. ◆ 追蹤更多華視影音及圖文新聞: 1.用Plurk追蹤華視影音及圖文新聞:追蹤 2.用Twitter追蹤華視影音及圖文新聞:追蹤
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