Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday reiterated that the “one country, two areas” proposal was President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inaccurate interpretation of Taiwan’s history and its decades-long democratic development.
“The proposal was a reaction against democracy and a sign of the re-emergence of authoritarianism,” Lee said in Donggang Township (東港), Pingtung County, on the first day of his three-day visit to southern Taiwan.
The controversial proposal, which was put forward by former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) during his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) on March 22 in Beijing, inaccurately implied that Taiwan and China are two administrative areas of the same country, Lee said.
Photo: Lee Li-fa, Taipei Times
While Ma cited an amendment of the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution and the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) as the legal basis of his initiative, Lee said Ma got the history wrong.
Since the temporary provisions effective during the period of mobilization for the suppression of the Communist rebellion (動員戡亂時期臨時條款) ceased to function on May 1, 1991, Taiwan and China have been considered as “two political entities,” Lee said.
The Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area was only a domestic law to deal with cross-strait exchanges, he added.
The 88-year-old Lee said it was “not right” that Wu, who served as secretary-general of the Presidential Office under him, spoke as he did and that Ma had been “pathetic” in irresponsibly submitting the proposal.
Lee spoke for 30 minutes on modern Taiwan history since 1895, saying it was crucial to understand history before making deliberations on cross-strait policies and “a large part of Taiwan history has been misinterpreted.”
He said he believed he was the best person to address the issue, because “there was no cross-strait policy before me” since former presidents Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) both refused to recognize the existence of the People’s Republic of China and initiate contacts.
On the issue of recent fuel and electricity price hikes, Lee said it was inappropriate for him to criticize the president on this issue.
However, Lee said he would have put in more thought and policy deliberation before making such decisions.
“It’s not a good thing if [Ma] thinks he can do whatever he wants since he won his second term. A leader should never cheat his people,” Lee said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
RSS