A senior Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member yesterday lashed out at party members calling for a freeze to the party charter’s Taiwan independence clause, saying it would alienate the party from society.
Former party chairman Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) said he despises the few who pander to China by calling for the clause’s suspension.
On June 19, former DPP legislator Chen Zau-nan (陳昭南) initiated the call to freeze Article 1 of the party’s charter — commonly known as the Taiwan independence clause, which calls for the “establishment of an independent state known as the Republic of Taiwan” — saying it has served its purpose in history and is now detrimental to the party.
Yao said that the nation is experiencing a resurgence of anti-China sentiment and those who are demanding that the party go against these expectations would create a rift between the party and the population.
Citing its history, Yao said the DPP has always been against unification with China and that the party’s pro-independence ideals are what have drawn the public to it.
He added that the party’s support rating has dropped because it has been avoiding advocating Taiwanese independence.
The Sunflower movement in March shows that public resistance to China and society’s unwillingness to be unified with China remain strong, Yao said.
The movement occupied the Legislative Yuan in Taipei from March 18 to April 10 to demonstrate opposition to the government’s handling of the controversial cross-strait service trade agreement.
It is strange that there are a few in the party who are clamoring for the clause to be suspended and urging that the party abandon its quest for an independent Taiwan, Yao said.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) had made the same suggestion in December last year, but was forced to put it aside because of strong opposition to the idea, he added.
Yao said he was not insinuating that Ker was behind the movement, but he knows that there are a select few behind it.
He added that such an action would go against the public will.
“They say the DPP should alter its China policy to help the party regain power in the presidential election in 2016, but I cannot agree,” he said.
“We lost the 2012 elections because the DPP did not bravely stress its claims on Taiwanese independence and had disappointed its supporters,” he said.
Yao added that he suspects that Chen and others who favor the freeze have an ulterior motive, and if they “go too far” in pushing the idea at the national party congress on July 20, he would speak out in rebuttal.
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 decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit