President William Lai’s (賴清德) “motherland” remarks at the Double Ten National Day gala on Saturday received mixed reaction, drawing applause from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers and criticism from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers.
Lai in his address at the gala said that the Republic of China (ROC) would mark its 113th anniversary on Thursday, while the People’s Republic of China (PRC) — whose National Day is on Oct. 1 — marked only its 75th anniversary.
“Therefore, it is impossible for the PRC to be the motherland of the ROC,” he said.
Photo: CNA
DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) yesterday said that Lai successfully rebutted with basic facts and solid logic those who claim that the PRC is the ROC’s motherland, and what he said was undeniable.
As the head of state of Taiwan, Lai aims to unify as many Taiwanese as possible, so he based his statement on the greatest possible common ground among the 23.5 million people of Taiwan, he said.
The reasoning behind Lai’s statement lies in the principle of popular sovereignty embodied in Article 2 of the Constitution of the ROC (Taiwan), which says that “the sovereignty of the ROC shall reside in the whole body of citizens,” Wang said.
Since people of the PRC are not citizens of the ROC, they certainly do not share sovereignty with the ROC, he added.
Citing Lai’s remarks that “the 113-year-old ROC could have instead been the motherland for people of the PRC aged 75 and older,” DPP Legislator Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) yesterday said Lai’s statement was clear, logical and an innovative interpretation of cross-strait relations from a Taiwanese viewpoint.
On the other hand, KMT Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) yesterday said Lai made a blunder at the gala on Saturday.
If Lai’s logic stands, Lee asked: “would the Empire of Japan — who ruled Taiwan from 1895 to 1945 — not be the motherland for Taiwanese aged 80 and older?”
She said she felt sorry for the ROC and the Taiwanese public as their head of state only focused his efforts on ideological clashes and flamboyant bickering.
KMT Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) yesterday said all the people at the gala on Saturday partook in the event to celebrate the birthday of the ROC, not the PRC, “and most of them have greater recognition of the ROC than Lai.”
The person who does not recognize the ROC might be Lai himself, she added.
Taiwan People’s Party spokeswoman Lin Tzu-yu (林子宇) yesterday urged Lai not to exploit the ROC to serve his political ends, adding that the ROC in Taiwan has become a historical fact since it took over Taiwan on behalf of the Allied powers in 1945.
The PRC certainly cannot be the motherland for the people of the ROC, and it is unnecessary to argue about who is the motherland of the other, as the ROC and the PRC are completely opposite to each other as political systems, she added.
Additional reporting by Lin Che-yuan
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