MAC warns Lien of legal backlash

The Mainland Affairs Council yesterday said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) was "disappointing and regrettable" and cautioned that the KMT might have broken the law in negotiating with the Chinese authorities on issues that only the government is authorized to deal with.

Wu also slammed Lien for criticizing Taiwan's democracy during the Beijing leg of his tour.

At a press conference last night, council Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) urged the KMT to disclose the contents of Lien's closed-door meeting with Hu to the government and the public after his return to Taipei.

"We aren't fully aware of what Lien talked about with Hu in their meeting. But it seems that the KMT might have violated the law. We have to discuss with appropriate government agencies whether the KMT-China negotiations are illegal," Wu said.

During Lien's telephone call with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) before his departure, Lien was asked not to raise issues with the Chinese that lacked consensus in Taiwan. But Lien went ahead and talked about the contentious "1992 consensus" between Taiwan and China in his meeting with Hu.

"There is a great discrepancy between what we expected Lien to say and what he actually said in Beijing," Wu said.

Lien failed to persuade Beijing to remove its missiles targeted at Taiwan and did not get China to agree to give Taiwan more room to participate in international organizations, he said.

As for People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong's (宋楚瑜) planned trip to China next week, Wu said the council was communicating with the PFP.

"The political parties should view the interests of the nation as their highest concern," Wu said.

Wu blasted Lien for criticizing Taiwan's democracy in China, an undemocratic country ruled by an authoritarian regime.

"In the land of the authoritarian, undemocratic People's Republic of China, Lien attacked Taiwan's democracy and aired our domestic disputes there. His performance stunned and disappointed many people in Taiwan," Wu said.

Commenting on Lien's speech at Peking University yesterday morning, Wu said Lien wasted a great and rare opportunity to express the voice of the Taiwanese people to China.

"He did not highlight the fact that the Republic of China [ROC] is a sovereign country. Nor did he mention the freedom and democracy in Taiwan," he said.

Lien failed to say that the ROC's sovereignty belonged to its 23 million people and that only those 23 million people have the final say on matters affecting the country's future, Wu said. Lien did in Beijing what a real statesman would never do -- bringing a domestic row overseas, he said.

Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that Lien, whose forefathers enjoyed affluent lives and high government positions in Taiwan, refused to recognize the nation's democratic developments simply because he twice lost presidential elections.

"Lien criticized Taiwan's democracy and praised China in Beijing. How can he face the people of Taiwan?" Su asked.