With the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) scheduled to hold its chairperson by-election tomorrow, party hard-liners expressed concern over select candidates’ call to adjust the party’s cross-strait policy following its massive defeat in the Jan. 11 presidential and legislative elections.
Former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and KMT Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), who represents the party’s younger generation, are deliberately avoiding or obfuscating the issue about cross-strait relations, former KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said in a press release yesterday.
The party’s core values — to uphold the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution and embrace the spirit of the Three Principles of the People (三民主義 ) — must not change, she said.
Hung said that her addition of the clause — “Based on the ROC Constitution and furthering the ‘1992 consensus,’ [the KMT is] to actively explore the possibility of terminating hostile relations across the Taiwan Strait by signing a peace accord” — in 2016, when she was chairwoman, is what people across the Strait need.
The so-called “1992 consensus” — a term that former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Sun Yat-sen School president Chang Ya-chung (張亞中) urged party members not to vote in the by-election, saying that Hau’s and Chiang’s comments on cross-strait relations seem to favor severing ties with China.
The core of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) cross-strait policy is separation from China, which increases the risk of conflict and possibly a resumption of war, Chang said.
The KMT should stress that it is different from the DPP and that its cross-strait policy could bring about a peaceful resolution, he said.
Hau and Chiang are echoing the DPP’s statements and, in so doing, causing the KMT — and Taiwan — to lose whatever advantage it has in cross-strait relations, he said.
Hau said that his core values of defending the ROC and staunchly resisting Taiwanese independence are very clear, adding that they are the KMT’s core values, too.
He pledged that if elected, he would handle cross-strait issues according to such ideals.
Chiang said that telling members not to vote is stifling democracy within the party and preventing changes that the party needs, which in the end would hurt the party more than the candidates.
He urged members to turn out to vote and help the party embrace change.
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