Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in an interview with the New York Times published yesterday that her China policy has been consistent through the years — one that does not accept the “one China” principle and advocates bilateral engagement with a democratic process and under a multilateral framework.
The DPP chairperson said that a “Taiwan consensus,” based on majority opinion through open dialogue, is a better way to deal with China than the opaque -decision-making process used by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for decades.
The so-called “1992 consensus” has been advocated by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), her opponent in next Saturday’s presidential election, and Beijing because China has insisted on it as a precondition for any cross-strait exchanges.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The 1992 consensus “is messy and nobody has a clear idea or convincing argument as to what happened in the 1990s,” she said.
Tsai said that the Taiwan consensus “means people in Taiwan have to get together and form a consensus of their own and that they would then turn around and talk to the Chinese to form a cross-strait consensus so we can build a relationship on that consensus.”
“And in my view, that is the right order to do things. And with that, we can build a long-lasting relationship with China,” she said.
Taiwan needs to manage uncertainty in dealing with China, a rising power that “is not a democracy or a full market economy yet,” to make sure it could insulate itself from problems such as social instability China may be facing, she said.
Taiwan appears to have lost its sovereignty because more international partners think Taiwan has accepted the “one China” principle and Ma’s interpretation of the cross-strait relationship as an “area-to-area relationship,” Tsai said.
Her China policy has been “pretty consistent” since she served as minister of the Mainland Affairs Council, Tsai said, as she said that Taiwan should leave its options open, but the important decisions have to made by the people through a democratic process.
“I do think we need to normalize our trade and economic relationship [with China] in the multilateral framework of the WTO. That continues to be my position,” she said.
Tsai raised several points about the development of Taiwan’s democracy, saying the bright side is that there are more mature voters and citizens, but there has been increasing Chinese influence as well.
The KMT’s large party assets continued to hurt fair competition between political parties, she added.
She said she was not worried about the US abandoning Taiwan, because Taiwan was not facing China alone and if the US is serious about returning to the Asia-Pacific region, it should boost the confidence of all the countries in the region.
The presidential hopeful said that former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) corruption case did not reflect on the DPP, adding that it is the KMT that still has prevalent and systemic corruption.
On economic issues, she highlighted the need for job creation and a change of strategy because Taiwan needs to pursue an employment-driven economy, instead of a GDP-driven one, and change the economy from one based on cost to one based on technology and innovation.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial