Chiang Pin-kun, president of the Straits Exchange Foundation, the semi-official government body of cross-strait affairs, and his counterpart Chen Yunlin, chairman of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, signed three agreements in the third round of cross-strait talks held in Nanjing, China on April 26, strengthening the cooperation in fight against crimes, financial collaboration, and increasing flight number and destinations.

Tsai made promotional tapes in Mandarin and Taiwanese in a recording studio on Monday morning to appeal to people’s participation in the May 17 demonstration. She made the remarks in media interview before the recording.

The negotiation failed to boost Taiwan’s interest, said Tsai. She further summed up four reasons to the failure: first, President Ma Ying-jeou made a comment to give way to Taiwan’s sovereignty prior to the Chiang-Chen talks. Second, Taiwan government was over-obsessed with China’s amity and over-reliant to China to boost local economy. Third, the government shirked the supervision of opposition groups and the legislative system. Fourth, the government did not conduct a thorough check of possible conflict of interest on related national security group members and negotiators.

Under the circumstances, as Taiwan had lost all bargaining chips, the negotiation was destined to be unfavorable to Taiwan, said Tsai. She criticized that President Ma should be held the most accountable because “the negotiation, aside from concession of sovereignty, failed to reach a substantial commercial reciprocity.”

Tsai emphasized that energy had been accumulated around the island for the May 17 rally. The DPP will enhance its oversight of the newly-inked cross-strait agreements and people’s discontent toward government’s poor performance in economy and slant to China will be displayed in the upcoming demonstration, alleged Tsai.

“Taiwanese citizens should realize that Taiwan is currently in a disadvantaged position. The loss of Taiwan’s fundamentals and interest is the first step toward crisis,” Tsai warned.