Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday gave conditional backing to a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus proposal to declare Chinese official Jiang Ping (江平) persona non grata because of his actions at the Tokyo International Film Festival over the weekened.
Ahead of the opening ceremony, Jiang, Chinese delegation chief and deputy director-general of the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV’s film bureau, demanded the Taiwanese delegation change its name from “Taiwan” to “China, Taiwan” or “Chinese Taipei.” He threatened to block Taiwanese films in the Chinese market after his request was rejected.
“If [Jiang] continues to maintain this attitude, it would mean that he is extremely unfriendly to Taiwan. In that case, it goes without saying the legislature could declare him persona non grata,” Wu said while fielding questions from KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) on the legislative floor.
Saying he thought Jiang and the Chinese government were playing “good cop, bad cop,” Lai asked Wu if he agreed with Executive Yuan spokesman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), who termed the incident an “isolated case,” but separated Jiang from Chinese officialdom.
Wu said he disagreed on Lai’s “white cop, bad cop game” characterization, but he said the incident could not be considered an isolated one without further observation, including how China’s Taiwan Affairs Office handles the issue.
However, the premier rejected Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Gao Jyh-peng’s (高志鵬) request that the government demand an apology from China.
Chiang’s judgement that the Chinese authorities were not involved in the contretempts was “correct,” Wu said.
“China’s population is more than 1.3 billion and it has a huge bureaucracy. So far, only Mr Jiang was so rude [to Taiwan],” Wu said, adding that the Presidential Office had urged China to take remedial measures and that he himself had criticized Jiang over his behavior.
“Wasn’t this enough?” Wu asked, adding it would be inappropriate for him to demand Jiang apologize to Taiwan.
“If I, as premier, demand [Jiang] apologize and he refused, wouldn’t it be the case that it was beneath my dignity?” Wu said.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) said yesterday that the ministry “would make proper, reasonable arrangements” concerning Taiwan’s participation in international events on the condition that such participation would not create the impression of “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan.”
When asked to comment last night on Ma’s statement, Wu said he needed to read a full transcript first.
“I have been thinking that both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait have been through a hard time turning from an attitude of confrontation to developing mutual prosperity … Why let one or two persons [spoil the relationship?]” Wu said. “We need to get back on course to continue accumulating goodwill and refrain from damaging the mutual trust built up so far.”
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