Thursday's unseemly brawl between lawmakers for the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party during Thursday's opening of a special Legislative session to review the controversial "Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Agreement" overshadowed the grave implications of the pact, notably the intentions of the authoritarian People's Republic of China.
The drive by President Ma Ying-jeou's KMT administration to rapidly ram the ratification of the ECFA, signed June 29 in Chongqing by semi-official representatives for Taipei and Beijing, through the Legislative Yuan aims to avoid serious discussion in Taiwan society of the vague contents of the agreement and its strategic implications.

Chief among these are its potential implications for the campaign by the PRC's ruling Chinese Communist Party to pressure the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama to suspend U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and create an impression that Taiwan and its people accept economic and political integration with the PRC.