The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday condemned the ruling party’s controversial “one country, two areas (一國兩區)” proposal and demanded that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) apologize and clarify his stance on Taiwan’s status.
If Ma failed to disclose the policymaking process behind the proposal, which the DPP said would make unification Taiwan’s only option, the DPP would not rule out “any form of action that could express Taiwanese people’s anger,” DPP spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) told a press conference.
The party announced its formal position on the proposal, which had been heavily debated in the legislature for days, after its weekly Central Standing Committee meeting.
The proposal, touted by former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) during his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) on Thursday last week in Beijing, has changed the “status quo” of Taiwan’s territory and sovereignty and has violated Ma’s own policy of “no independence and no unification,” Lin said.
“Under this policy, unification [with China] would be Taiwan’s only option,” he said.
The policy is dangerous in that the international community would likely interpret “one country” as being the People’s Republic of China (PRC), making Taiwan a region under the PRC, Lin said.
What is even more unacceptable was the opaque policymaking process, he said, as top intelligence and cross-strait affairs officials were kept out of the decisionmaking circle.
Ma not only ignored legislative oversight and failed to communicate with the public, but he has also stayed silent on the matter to avoid responsibility, Lin added.
While Ma has not personally commented on the “one country, two areas” proposal, the Presidential Office on Monday said that the complete definition for cross-strait ties is “one Republic of China, two areas.”
Lin said the DPP has always maintained that Taiwan is a sovereign country and any change in the “status quo” should go through a national referendum.
“Taiwan’s sovereignty should not be a bargaining chip on the negotiation table, nor can it be transferred between political parties,” Lin added.
Lin said Ma should apologize and explain his policy, adding that the party would not rule out measures to give voice to public anger.
However, Lin declined to confirm if participation in a protest planned by several groups on May 20 — the day of Ma’s inauguration for his second presidential term — was one of the options.
The DPP yesterday also reached a resolution on another much-discussed issue — a presidential pardon for former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who is serving a 17-and-a-half-year sentence for corruption.
A number of pro-localization groups and DPP lawmakers, among them a senior legislator, Mark Chen (陳唐山), have recently advocated a presidential pardon for Chen and have launched a petition.
Lin said the DPP supports Chen’s judicial rights and right to medical treatment.
However, the party has urged its members to refrain from taking unilateral action before a more specific resolution is made, so the issue “would not be exploited by its political rivals as a tool to divide the DPP,” he said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS