Fri, Oct 12, 2007 page3

• Chen tells Ma to stop `deceiving' public

  HISTORY? The president panned Ma for accusing the DPP of colluding with Beijing, saying it was Chiang Kai-shek who said the ROC perished when the KMT lost China

  • By Ko Shu-ling / STAFF REPORTER
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  President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) called on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to stop "deceiving" the public by saying that "Taiwan is the ROC" because the Republic of China was annihilated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) long ago.

  Chen was referring to a statement released by Ma's campaign office on Sept. 15 that said: "We hope the DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] will not collude with China in attacking the Republic of China ... The Republic of China and Taiwan are inseparable. Taiwan is the Republic of China, harming the Republic of China means harming Taiwan."

  Ma on Wednesday went on to say that the Presidential Office did not decorate the building or put up placards displaying the national title for this year's Double Ten National Day celebrations, calling the move similar to China's refusal to recognize the ROC.

  Ma added that the administration's behavior showed that the DPP was singing Beijing's tune and had teamed up with Chinese authorities to attack the ROC.

  Dismissing Ma's remarks yesterday, Chen said it was the CCP that eliminated the ROC -- not the DPP.

  "Please don't forget that on March 13, 1950, former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) said on Yangmingshan that the ROC already perished following the loss of mainland China and they were the people of a conquered nation," Chen said. "The KMT cannot distort history and blame the DPP for something we did not do. Ma should look up the historical document in his party's archives and the Academia Historica."

  Chen said the name ROC can no longer be used in China, the UN, APEC, the WTO and the WHO.

  While Ma has claimed that Taiwan is the ROC, Chen said he would like to know whether Ma refuses to accept that the ROC is Taiwan because he still fantasizes about an ROC that includes China and Outer Mongolia.

  "You have been deceiving the Taiwanese people for decades, are you going to continue doing it?" he asked, urging Ma to define the ROC and its territorial boundaries and clarify whether it is the same as the ROC that co-founded the UN in 1945.

  As Taiwan was a Japanese colony when the ROC was founded, it was not included in the ROC Constitution, Chen said.

  Taiwan's existence allowed Chiang to use it as a base for the ROC, Chen said, adding that what is done is done but the public must know the truth.

  "Taiwan is Taiwan. That is the truth and the status quo across the Taiwan Strait," he said. "Don't fool us anymore. Decades of deception are enough."

  At a separate setting yesterday, Ma condemned Chen for trampling on the national title.

  "I can't find any president in the world who looks down on his own nation's title. He has focused his efforts on abusing the national title instead of improving the economy. I don't know what he is doing," Ma said when approached for comments in Taipei.

  Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
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