The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday said it would redraft a proposed bill on monitoring cross-strait agreements in line with the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution, meaning the terms “Taiwan” and “China” would be changed to “Taiwan Area” and “Mainland Area.”
“We will submit an official caucus proposal for a bill to monitor cross-strait negotiations and agreements by the end of the month,” DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said after a meeting to prepare DPP lawmakers for the legislative session scheduled to begin today. “As for the name of the bill, we will refer to the ROC constitutional framework; we will not use the names we used in the past.”
Ker said that as the new bill is to conform with the ROC constitutional framework, not only would its title be changed, but some of its content would also be adjusted.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The original bill drafted by the DPP in the previous legislature was called “Regulations for Handling Agreements between Taiwan and China,” with a preamble stating that the law was meant to regulate issues concerning the signing of agreements between Taiwan and China.
However, since the caucus has decided to follow the ROC constitutional framework, the terms “Taiwan” and “China” would be changed to “Taiwan Area” and “Mainland Area” in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws on cross-strait issues.
New Power Party executive chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said Ker’s comments were unclear and that the DPP had an obligation to explain if and why its position had changed.
The “framework of the Constitution of the Republic of China” can be interpreted in different ways, depending on which part of the Constitution is referenced, Huang said.
He said that if the “framework” refers to the sovereignty invested by the Constitution in Taiwanese, it would not necessarily represent a denial of the “two states” dictum (兩國論), which was premised on the legal theory that the nation has already achieved de facto independence as a result of constitutional amendments passed during the democratization process.
Any framework that relegates Taiwan to the status of an “area” of the Republic of China and includes a Chinese “mainland” would be “unacceptable,” he said.
“We have invested a lot of energy into constructing a Taiwanese national consciousness and most Taiwanese have already accepted the fact that China and Taiwan are different countries — do you really want to go back 20 years and say that we are really ‘one country with two areas’?” Huang said.
The “one country with two areas” stance goes against common sense, while the 11th amendment which enshrined it into the Constitution was illegitimate because it had been passed by “lifelong” lawmakers who held their seats from 1949 until 1992, he said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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