Despite a strong backlash from party members, DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (
He said that "one China" is the basis on which the ROC Constitution is founded.
Speaker of the Legislative Yuan, the KMT's Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), yesterday publicly endorsed Hsieh's view, saying, "If the DPP can acknowledge the `one China' framework, it will help defuse the tension between the ruling party and the opposition parties."
"A rational discussion based on [the `one China' framework in] the Constitution will further manifest [the fact] that Taiwan is an independent sovereign state, which is advantageous to Taiwan," Hsieh said, when questioned by Kaohsiung City Councilors to clarify the DPP's stance on the "one China" principle yesterday.
The former KMT government proclaimed in its White Paper, "Relations Across the Taiwan Strait," in 1994 that each side of the Taiwan Strait "has jurisdiction over its respective territory and that they should co-exist as two legal entities."
In 1999, then president Lee Teng-hui (
"The `one China' framework in the Constitution is a statement of the de facto situation, and it has nothing to do with whether I agree or disagree with that framework," Hsieh said.
Hsieh said that, in the Constitution, it has been made clear that the ROC is an independent sovereign state and that "one China" does not represent the People's Republic of China. He also said, however, that there was room for discussion on the issue of unification. He therefore argued that he was only suggesting a way to reach a domestic consensus on the interpretation of "one China."
Hsieh's remarks, however, were interpreted as affirming the ROC Constitution, which states that China is a part of its territory -- a statement to which the DPP has long been opposed. Lee Hung-hsi (
DPP Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen (
Hsieh, in response yesterday, said he agreed with Lee Hung-hsi.
"Not every article in the Constitution is accepted by all political parties. During the process of discussion, the public will participate in and be better informed about whether the Constitution is practical and should be revised or not," Hsieh said, adding that it was unconstitutional to link "one China" with "one country, two systems."
Wu, moreover, stressed that the DPP's stance on the "one China" principle conformed with the party's 1999 resolution regarding Taiwan's future (
When asked if the so-called "1992 consensus" existed, Hsieh said that he was not involved in the 1992 cross-strait talks and, therefore, he was not sure. He said, however, that according to the Mainland Affairs Council, there was no such consensus.
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