20031011

TSU shuns national day celebrations to press name change

By Chang Yun-Ping

STAFF REPORTER

Absent from yesterday's Double Ten National Day celebrations, Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) legislators yesterday pressed for a new constitution for a Republic of Taiwan, which they said was the only nation they could honor and recognize.

TSU legislative caucus whip Liao Pen-yen said the party has been keenly promoting a change in the nation's name from the Republic of China (ROC) to Taiwan in a bid to boost the country's standing in the international community.

"The ROC is a stumbling block for Taiwan in its attempts to join the international arena. Today is the national birthday of the ROC and what the TSU would like to celebrate is the Republic of Taiwan's national birthday," Liao said.

In response to President Chen Shui-bian's call for a new constitution during his speech yesterday, TSU Secretary General Lin Chih-chia said a new constitution would enable Taiwan to become a more "complete and normal" state.

"As a national leader, it is responsible for Chen to propose a new constitution to create new prospects for the nation's future. It is very different from the pan-blue alliance, which has always avoided touching the sensitive issue of national identity and failed to put forth new visions for the country," Lin said.

Lin said that although Taiwan is an independent sovereign country, it should reinforce and deepen the nation's localization to better instill Taiwan-centric values and make the country's name reflect the reality.

"The ROC Constitution includes a national boundary that contradicts reality. As former president Lee Teng-hui has said, it has made Taiwan become an abnormal country. That's why the TSU wants to promote using a referendum to establish a new constitution to turn Taiwan into normal and complete state," Lin said.

Lin said the party has formulated a detailed agenda for creating a draft of a new constitution by Jan. 1 next year and ratifying it through a referendum coinciding with the legislative election at the end of next year.

The party wishes to enact a new constitution by 2008, saying this would be the best time for the birth of a new nation of Taiwan.

Chen tells Beijing to ditch `one China'

DOUBLE TEN: On the 92nd anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China, the president pressed his cross-strait rivals to open the `door to cooperation'

By Lin Chieh-yu

STAFF REPORTER

In his fourth Double Ten National Day speech since he came to power, President Chen Shui-bian appealed to Beijing to abandon its "one China" ideology and end its military threats to create the possibility of peace between Taiwan and China.

"The `door to cooperation' and the `door to peace' will always exist between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait," Chen said in his address to the public and foreign guests in front of the Presidential Office yesterday morning.

"The `door to cooperation' can open only if the `one China' and `one country, two systems' formulas are put aside," he said. "And the `door to peace' can open only when China renounces its threat to resort to the use of force and halts its strategic attempts to isolate Taiwan internationally."

Chen reaffirmed that he must safeguard Taiwan's sovereignty, security and dignity and ensure its sustainable development.

"Only those who do not believe in themselves and do not believe in Taiwan will succumb to hegemony, make concessions for peace, or try to convince us that China's military intimidation and coercion compels us to accept the so-called `one China' principle," he said.

"Some argue that there will be more room for Taiwan on the international stage if we accept the `one China' principle. However, if we compromise our stance on sovereignty and relinquish our existing democracy and freedom, we will waive our right to join international organizations, and it will be impossible for us to ever have a voice in the global community," he said.

On the economy, Chen said: "The signs of economic recovery are increasingly evident, and momentum is building, while the most difficult times are now behind us. The indicators and ratings of international institutions provide an optimistic forecast for Taiwan's future economic performance."

"We ourselves should have faith in Taiwan," he said, "and there is no reason to heed the pessimistic rhetoric of a few."

Stressing his resolution to facilitate the development of cross-strait trade as well as his confidence in winning next year's presidential election, Chen said that though China gave no positive response to his recent proposal -- "one objective and three stages" for direct cross-strait transportation -- the government will continue to do its part.

"I have no doubt that after the presidential election next year, the development of cross-strait trade will enter a new phase," he said.

"If constitutional reform is to succeed, it is necessary to harness popular will, political consensus among parties and the involvement of constitutional scholars. We will not make the past mistake of having a single party push through unilateral constitutional change," the president will say. "The final draft of this constitution should be passed through a referendum involving all Taiwan's citizens."

Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) lawmakers yesterday said Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen should step down because of lax cross-strait regulations.

One day after the Legislative Yuan passed amendments to the Statute Governing the Relations between the People of Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, TSU members blamed Tsai for the fact that more than 80,000 Chinese nationals married to Taiwanese have obtained legal residence status since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government was elected in 2000.

TSU whip Liao Pen-yen said that there is a slackness in the application of cross-strait regulations which strays from the mainstream opinion in Taiwan.

"Tsai is the one who should step down for making these wrong Chinese policies," Liao said.

According to Liao, these policies include granting residence to the great number of Chinese nationals immigrating to Taiwan on the grounds of marriages to Taiwanese citizens and allowing Taiwanese investors to set up an eight-inch wafer plant in China.

He added that the lifting of the ban on Chinese colleges recruiting students in Taiwan could deprive the nation of potential benefits, since Taiwan and China have not yet reached a consensus on recognizing each other's educational records.

Despite a promise from Tsai to implement stricter surveillance and management of naturalization applications by Chinese spouses, Legislator Chen Chien-ming said leaving the amount of time Chinese spouses must wait to apply for an ID card at eight years would burden Taiwan's economy and affect domestic politics.

According to Chen, more than 110,000 Chinese spouses would qualify for Taiwanese citizenship by the end of this year.

"And at least 40 percent of them had faked marriages with Taiwanese citizens in order to stay here," Chen said.

The TSU caucus members apologized for failing to safeguard the interests of the Taiwanese people, since they were a minority in the legislative review on Thursday where it was agreed to leave the waiting period at eight years. The 12 members of the TSU, backed by 17 DPP legislators and one independent lawmaker, voted in vain against the eight-year rule for Chinese spouses.

Lawmakers also decided on Thursday to allow Chinese universities to recruit students in Taiwan and to give the government 18 months to complete negotiations with China on direct cross-strait transportation links.

The TSU and some DPP lawmakers opposed this, vowing to defend Taiwan's interests and sovereignty by maintaining rigid rules on cross-strait exchanges.

"The TSU caucus will petition for a legislative reconsideration of the cross-strait statute on Tuesday. In the meantime, we have decided to close the door to further negotiations with the three major parties after they abandoned the TSU and the real interests of the Taiwanese people by passing the amendments," Lo Chih-ming, another TSU leader, said.

DPP whip Ker Chien-ming said that his party would not endorse the TSU's reconsideration appeal, "because it is pointless."

"The revised statute, in fact, realizes the goal of imposing more stringent regulations on granting Chinese spouses ID cards. The number of Chinese immigrants could be managed by setting up quotas in the different phases of the application procedure.... The old law was loose and incapable of stemming the influx of Chinese immigrants," Ker said yesterday.

"It is therefore unnecessary to file for a review of the approved amendments, especially considering that the only proposal the TSU presented in opposition to the eight-year rule was an extended 11-year application period. Extending the waiting period would not necessarily lead to a reduction in the number of Chinese immigrants in Taiwan 10 years later," Ker said.

"It is normal that each party would safeguard its stance on certain political issues, but the way that the TSU suddenly withdrew from the last-minute multiparty negotiations on the amendments is debatable," the DPP whip said.

RECTIFICATION NECESSARY: Former president Lee Teng-hui said in an article that Taiwan has to rectify its official name to make it and the nation consistent with reality

"As I worked to advance the cause of freedom and democracy in Taiwan during my 12 years as president, I met with many difficulties and obstacles that brought me to the conclusion that Taiwan is not a `normal country.'"－Lee Teng-hui, former president

Taiwan must rectify its name because all the difficulties it has encountered are linked to its impractical name "the Republic of China," former president Lee Teng-hui said in an article published on Thursday in the Far Eastern Economic Review.

Taiwan must begin to correct its name, making the nation and its official name consistent with reality, Lee said in his article.

In early September, between 100,000 and 150,000 people gathered in front of the Presidential Office to support a proposal for what is called the "rectification" of Taiwan's name, he said.

A normal country's path towards development is influenced by its history and by its geography. People seek the most advantageous course by reflecting upon their past and considering where they are situated in the physical world, Lee said.

But over the past two centuries, Taiwan has been ruled by alien powers, Lee said.

Its goals and political system, in particular, have been imposed by outside regimes, without any influence by the people of Taiwan, without any heed of their views and needs. For a very long time, outside powers dictated the way life was lived by Taiwan's people.

Even now -- three years after the democratic transfer of political power -- we suffer from the debilitating effect of this historical burden, Lee said.

The people of Taiwan still are unable to muster the determination to be their own masters, to shoulder the responsibilities they alone ought to bear, to deliberate on the nation's future goals, to bravely face challenges and pursue ideals.

While, admittedly, the establishment and progress of a nation cannot be shackled by history, it cannot completely dissociate itself from the past, Lee said.

Lee said that history cannot be changed, but the future is for Taiwanese to define. How we define our identity is an exercise made against the backdrop of our antecedents.

One reason Taiwan is not a "normal country" is because it has not been able to come to terms with its own history and to establish a Taiwan-centric frame of thinking.

Creating a Taiwan-centred environment and realizing the ideals of a normal country are the goals towards which Taiwan should strive, Lee said.

He said that he recently claimed that "the Republic of China no longer exists" because of three reasons:

First, when the Republic of China was established in 1912, it by no means encompassed Taiwan;

Next, after World War II, the ROC was a military occupier of Taiwan, and Taiwan's actual status ought to be deemed a land belonging to no country, whose international status has yet to be defined -- not as a part of the Republic of China's already-existing territory;

Lastly, after 1949 -- when Chinese communists took the territory of the Republic of China -- the Republic of China in fact no longer possessed any territory, with only its name continuing to exist.

Although the name "Republic of China" was hung on Taiwan, ever since the People's Republic of China supplanted the Republic of China in the UN in 1971, the Republic of China vanished from the international community. People should realize that the "Republic of China" is just an official name, not a nation, Lee said.

He said that through democratization, Taiwan has finally established a native, Taiwan-rooted democratic regime.

Such a native government ought to plan for the well-being of all Taiwan's inhabitants, serve the people and work hard to act on the public's demand for the rectification of the country's name to reflect the identity of its people, Lee said.