Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday questioned Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) at the legislature on the prudence of using “Chinese Taipei” for the nation’s membership bids for international organizations, saying the name would mislead foreigners into believing Taiwan is part of China.
“The most accurate translation of ‘Chinese Taipei’ is ‘the Taipei that belongs to China.’ Our foreign friends will think we have agreed to be part of China if we use that term as our title in the international arena,” DPP Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) said. “Only unificationists would use the term ‘Chinese Taipei.’”
Chai said that using “Chinese Taipei” was equivalent to downgrading the nation’s sovereignty, was an insult to its dignity and displayed shocking disrespect toward the public.
Lai said she had no idea how foreigners would interpret the term “Chinese Taipei,” but that the term had been used on many occasions.
Lai made her remarks at a breakfast meeting with DPP caucus members.
Lai was invited to brief the caucus about the Straits Exchange Foundation’s (SEF) resumption of talks with its counterpart, China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS).
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) delineated the caucus’ requests for the talks: that the “1992 consensus” not be described as an agreement and that direct cargo and charter flights be worked out by the SEF and ARATS, but require approval by the legislature.
“By law the SEF reports to the MAC, the MAC reports to the Cabinet and the Cabinet reports to the legislature. Of course, any agreement between the SEF and ARATS will be reviewed and approved by the legislature,” Lai said.
The DPP lawmakers said their second major concern, in addition to the nation’s title in international organizations, was expeditiously launching direct cargo flights across the strait.
Lai assured DPP lawmakers that the SEF would seek to launch cargo flights, but that the start date for such flights would be delayed.
“We need to talk about certain mechanisms in greater detail. It takes time,” Lai said.
DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) demanded that Lai step down if the SEF fails to negotiate a start date for direct cargo flight at next week’s talks.
“Direct cargo flights are what will really benefit Taiwan, not passenger flights or opening Taiwan to Chinese tourists,” Tsai said.
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