Legislators across party lines yesterday expressed opposition to a proposal by Huang Wu-hsiung (黃武雄), a retired professor and husband of Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬), that the nation maintain the “status quo” for the next 50 years and write the development into the Constitution.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), head of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee, criticized Huang’s proposal, saying that it would limit the development of cross-strait relations.
“[The government decided to pursue] no unification with China and no de jure independence in a bid to maintain the balance between Taiwan and China. We don’t have to write [the policy] into the Constitution because if we did, this would impose restrictions on our own development,” Wu said.
Wu’s comment came after Huang launched an online campaign recently to garner signatures in support of his call for a “50-year maintenance of peace.”
In an article titled Searching for a Time of Peace, Huang expressed concerns about the perennial wrangling between the pan-blue and pan-green camps.
He suggested that the nation should seek to reach a consensus with China to “jointly propose concrete measures to maintain the ‘status quo’ for the next 50 years.”
“[Taiwanese] should seek to put an end to the confrontation between the two [political] opposites under the current framework of our sovereignty and to ensure the stability of the nation, a functioning society and the development of Taiwan. [We] should also cooperate to fight for peace and our survival over the next 50 years,” Huang said.
Huang proposed that a referendum should be held to seek whether to write “50 years of ‘status quo,’ no unification with China and no de jure independence” into the Constitution.
The nation should also form a consensus to “demilitarize” Taiwan and include the consensus in the Constitution, Huang said.
“With the articles written into the Constitution as the foundation, [we] then could demand that Taiwan, China and the US sit down, negotiate and sign a 50-year cross-strait peace agreement and allow Taiwan to join international organizations with names such as ‘Taiwan in Transition’ or ‘ROC [Republic of China] in Transition,’” he said.
“Taiwan’s sovereignty can be left to the generation [of Taiwanese] 50 years from now to decide. People in our generation have too many unresolved problems and should not worry about this complicated issue,” he said.
“Let’s honestly admit that people in our generation do not have the wisdom and ability to resolve the unification-independence controversy,” he said.
Wu shrugged off Huang’s suggestion, saying that the future of Taiwan is being decided by its people.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the cross-strait issue was high politicized and sensitive and could not be resolved by an Internet signature drive.
Even if such a peace treaty were written into the Constitution, it would have no meaning in China, Ker said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS