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Tsai clarifies
‘unification’ comments
BRAIN TEASER: Former DPP presidential candidate
Peng Ming-min said that in a true democracy all options are on the table as long
as people are free to express their views
By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
Democratic Progressive Party
presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen waves to about 2,000 people who attended a
rally in San Jose, California, on Saturday.
Photo: CNA
The war of words over the “Taiwan
consensus” and the so-called “1992 consensus” continued yesterday as the Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) described the former as “imaginary” and the Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP) compared the latter to an “unauthorized construction.”
The DPP also said a story published yesterday by the Chinese-language China
Times, which reported that DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in the US
that unification was a potential -outcome of the “Taiwan consensus” she
initiated, was an “overinterpretation” of Tsai’s comment.
Asked by reporters in New York whether unification would be one of her options,
Tsai, who was in the middle of her 10-day US visit, said: “When I say I do not
rule out any possibility, I mean it,” adding that the DPP would engage China
with an open-minded approach if Taiwanese supported such an approach.
“The DPP upholds democratic values above everything else, which is why it
asserts that the ‘Taiwan consensus’ would be a process that engages all parties
in society,” DPP spokesman Liang Wen-jie (梁文傑) told a press conference
yesterday.
“However, that does not mean unification is the DPP’s preference or its
position,” he said.
The DPP has always said that Taiwan is a sovereign and independent country and
any change in the “status quo” would require a referendum, he said.
In a press release, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election campaign office
spokesperson Ma Wei-kuo (馬瑋國) said that Tsai, the DPP’s presidential candidate,
had so far failed to clarify her China policy and it was irresponsible to ask
people to come up with solutions on her behalf.
Democracy was the driving force behind Tsai’s China policy, embracing the need
for comprehensive dialogue rather than providing people with fixed answers, DPP
spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
While President Ma said talk about a “Taiwan consensus” was “empty” and likened
it to “pre-constructed homes” on Friday, Chen described the “1992 consensus” as
“unauthorized constructions” because the so-called consensus was reached by the
KMT and China without the consent of Taiwanese, and had never been subject to
legislative monitoring.
“A fragile agreement like this could not withstand the multifaceted and
wide-ranging cross-strait engagement that will be needed in the future,” Chen
said.
At a speech on Saturday evening in San Francisco, Tsai said building a Taiwan
consensus through a democratic process would involve the participation of all
Taiwanese and was the right direction to take.
The DPP has its own clearly defined position on Taiwan’s national identity and
engagement with China, but was willing to sit down with everyone, including the
KMT, to work out a consensus, Tsai told more than 1,200 supporters at a rally in
Northern California.
“That is the ‘Taiwan consensus’ I am talking about — a democratic process,” she
said, adding that only those who refuse to accept “democratic reality” would say
“a means to an end” was more important.
As crucial as China policy is to Taiwan’s national affairs, Ma was barking up
the wrong tree in his repeated attempts to force the DPP to accept the “1992
consensus,” she said.
“At the end of the day, how Taiwan engages with China is the more important
issue and Taiwanese do not ask for much. All they want is a peaceful
relationship with China,” she said.
All Taiwanese are entitled to participate in the decisionmaking process on such
an important issue. Citing Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) decision to withdraw from the
UN in the 1970s, Tsai said it was an example of how a decision made by one man
or one political party could jeopardize a country.
On the most hectic day of her 10-day visit to the US, Tsai left New York on
Saturday morning for a brief stop in Houston, Texas, before arriving in San
Francisco in the evening. She is scheduled to visit Los Angeles, the last of six
cities on her trip, before returning to Taiwan tomorrow night.
At a luncheon fundraiser in Houston, Tsai told more than 700 supporters that the
current election was the first time a DPP candidate has been neck-and-neck with
a KMT rival four months before the presidential election.
The DPP chairperson also highlighted “respect for democratic values” as the
fundamental difference between the DPP and the KMT.
While most people perceive the DPP as more of a ‘grassroots’ political party,
she said, “when you compare the two parties, you will find that the DPP is the
one that stays true to Western democratic values.”
Meanwhile, several former officials and political advocates voiced their support
for the “Taiwan consensus” yesterday, saying the initiative was in line with
democratic principles and that the inclusion of unification as one option was
“democratic common sense.”
The most important element of the consensus is that it would be established
through a series of democratic procedures, Koh Se-kai (許世楷), Taiwan’s former
representative to Japan, said at a forum.
Speaking on the sideline of a book-launching ceremony, former presidential
adviser Peng Ming-min (彭明敏) said the “Taiwan consensus” was a “solid, rational
and democratic” initiative because “in a democratic country, you do not exclude
any option and accept the decision as long as the people are able to freely
express their views.”
“Anyone with the slightest understanding of democracy would know that all major
policies — particularly the direction of a country — should be decided by the
people, rather than one single political party or one man,” said Jim Lee (李筱峰),
a history professor and a political commentator.
“I do not support unification [with China], but if that is the people’s choice I
would have to accept it. That is democracy,” Lee said.
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