Response to the “broad one-China framework” proposed by former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-te (施明德) and former National Security Council secretary-general Su Chi (蘇起) from the major political parties, academia and the Presidential Office has been at best lukewarm and non-committal, if not openly critical.
DPP spokesman Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said the party would respect the plurality of thought in a liberal society, adding however that Taiwan’s future must be decided by its 23 million nationals.
Newly elected DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) office spokesperson Hung Yao-fu (洪耀福) said similar ideas were raised in the past and the resurfacing of such comments highlighted the lack of unified national consensus on cross-strait affairs.
“We hope to achieve a national consensus on the subject through transparent and democratic means in the future,” Hung said.
Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) criticized the idea as “the repackaging of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) ‘ultimate unification.’”
Whether one called the policy “broad one China” or “narrow one China” (小一中), the People’s Republic of China is regarded as the sole legal representative of China by the international community, Huang said.
Taiwanese are against the “one China” policy and repackaging the policy under a new name would receive no better treatment, Huang said.
China is to blame for all the animosity in cross-strait affairs as Taiwan had abolished the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion (動員戡亂時期臨時條款) under then-acting president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in 1991, while China enacted the anti-secession law in 2004, Huang said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesman Charles Chen (陳以信) said the KMT and the Ma administration’s view on the matter was based on the Republic of China Constitution and “one China, with different interpretations” (一中各表), adding that any sort of dialogue on cross-strait affairs was good, regardless of whether the ideas conformed to the KMT’s stance.
Presidential Office spokesperson Yin Wei (殷瑋) said the president hoped to maintain the “status quo” and the “three noes” policy — no unification, no independence, no use of force (不統, 不獨, 不武) — brought up during his presidential election campaign prior to 2008.
National Chengchi University (NCCU) professor Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said that according to today’s announcement, both of the major political parties have achieved consensus on cross-strait issues, but it remained up to China whether such a viewpoint is acceptable.
Meanwhile, Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹) said on Facebook that he did not understand what “China” in the “broad one-China framework” meant.
No specifics were given and until further information clarifying such a concept, it is not a new concept, Wang said.
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