President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should explain to the public his view of the relationship between Taiwan and China after former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) made a controversial “one country, two areas” proposal in Bejing, former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.
“It was a dangerous statement and if President Ma accepts that one country represents the ROC [Republic of China], then he needs to explain the difference between the ROC and the PRC [People’s Republic of China], and the relationship between them,” Tsai said on the sidelines of a digital teleconference, during which she talked with Chinese dissident Wang Dan (王丹).
Ma has been deliberately vague in his interpretation of cross-strait relations, she said, adding that he also needed to explain if the “one country, two areas” initiative was Wu’s own proposal.
Meanwhile, former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) posted a Facebook message yesterday, saying that although the amended ROC Constitution did contain the terms “Mainland area and Taiwan area,” those terms delineated a special arrangement relating specifically to cross-strait exchanges.
“It was not a statement with sovereignty-related implications. The Constitution should be interpreted in a way that benefits people most,” Hsieh wrote.
DPP Legislator Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) echoed Hsieh’s view, saying that the Constitutional amendment was “only an arrangement of expedience.”
Ma should not have allowed Wu to make such a statement, Lee said, because he pledged during his re-election campaign that he would discuss major national and social issues with opposition leaders after the election.
Although Ma has reiterated that Taiwan’s future should be determined by the 23 million Taiwanese, DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said that he was now making unilateral decisions and turning his back on the people.
Former DPP legislator Kuo Cheng-liang (郭正亮) said that he thought the DPP had shot itself in the foot with its opposition to the “two areas” proposal.
During the DPP’s eight years in power, he said, it had neither amended the Constitution and scrapped the Act Governing Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) nor changed the existing cross-strait exchange platform between the Mainland Affairs Council and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.
“Wasn’t that a tacit continuation and recognition of ‘one country, two areas?’” Kuo said.
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
RSS