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2012 ELECTIONS: Tsai
speaks to ‘NYT’ about the ‘Taiwan consensus’
By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
Democratic Progressive Party
presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen, right, gives the thumbs up while
campaigning in heavy rain in the Wugu, Taishan and Sinjhuang areas of New Taipei
City yesterday.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in an interview with the New York
Times published yesterday that her China policy has been consistent through the
years — one that does not accept the “one China” principle and advocates
bilateral engagement with a democratic process and under a multilateral
framework.
The DPP chairperson said that a “Taiwan consensus,” based on majority opinion
through open dialogue, is a better way to deal with China than the opaque
-decision-making process used by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for
decades.
The so-called “1992 consensus” has been advocated by President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九), her opponent in next Saturday’s presidential election, and Beijing
because China has insisted on it as a precondition for any cross-strait
exchanges.
The 1992 consensus “is messy and nobody has a clear idea or convincing argument
as to what happened in the 1990s,” she said.
Tsai said that the Taiwan consensus “means people in Taiwan have to get together
and form a consensus of their own and that they would then turn around and talk
to the Chinese to form a cross-strait consensus so we can build a relationship
on that consensus.”
“And in my view, that is the right order to do things. And with that, we can
build a long-lasting relationship with China,” she said.
Taiwan needs to manage uncertainty in dealing with China, a rising power that
“is not a democracy or a full market economy yet,” to make sure it could
insulate itself from problems such as social instability China may be facing,
she said.
Taiwan appears to have lost its sovereignty because more international partners
think Taiwan has accepted the “one China” principle and Ma’s interpretation of
the cross-strait relationship as an “area-to-area relationship,” Tsai said.
Her China policy has been “pretty consistent” since she served as minister of
the Mainland Affairs Council, Tsai said, as she said that Taiwan should leave
its options open, but the important decisions have to made by the people through
a democratic process.
“I do think we need to normalize our trade and economic relationship [with
China] in the multilateral framework of the WTO. That continues to be my
position,” she said.
Tsai raised several points about the development of Taiwan’s democracy, saying
the bright side is that there are more mature voters and citizens, but there has
been increasing Chinese influence as well.
The KMT’s large party assets continued to hurt fair competition between
political parties, she added.
She said she was not worried about the US abandoning Taiwan, because Taiwan was
not facing China alone and if the US is serious about returning to the
Asia-Pacific region, it should boost the confidence of all the countries in the
region.
The presidential hopeful said that former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁)
corruption case did not reflect on the DPP, adding that it is the KMT that still
has prevalent and systemic corruption.
On economic issues, she highlighted the need for job creation and a change of
strategy because Taiwan needs to pursue an employment-driven economy, instead of
a GDP-driven one, and change the economy from one based on cost to one based on
technology and innovation.
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