President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday signed a document ordering that the National Unification Council (NUC) will "cease to function" and that the Guidelines for National Unification will "cease to apply" as an irate Beijing continued to thunder yesterday about his "splittist" activities.
Chen made the decision on the council and guidelines on Monday after chairing a National Security Council meeting.
Later yesterday he defended his actions to an audience commemorating the 228 Incident, calling the council and guidelines "products of absurdity" that were "created in a police state."
In response, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), with the endorsement of KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma said yesterday that although impeaching Chen is unlikely given the vote threshold required, the opposition nonetheless needed to express its disapproval of Chen.
Chen asked why the KMT was planning to impeach him over the scrapping of the council and guidelines when Ma had already acknowledged that independence was an option for the country.
"If what Ma says is true and comes from the bottom of his heart, the KMT should have supported the decision I made today," Chen said at a ceremony at the 228 Peace Memorial Park in Taipei.
"I'd like to ask you something: Is A-bian [Chen] wrong? Is A-bian wrong? Is A-bian wrong by returning the right of choosing their future to the 23 million people of Taiwan?" he said in Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese).
The audience responded, "No, no, no."
Chen told the audience that his decision to cease the operations of the council and the guidelines did not change the "status quo" in the Taiwan Strait. Instead, he said, it prevented the "status quo" from being changed unilaterally.
"Taiwan is an independent sovereign state," Chen said. "The sovereignty of the nation lies with the people of Taiwan. Only the 23 million people of Taiwan have the right to decide the future of Taiwan."
"Today, with the unification council and guidelines officially entering the history books, I hand you, the great people of Taiwan, the right to decide your own future, without setting any preconditions," he said.
Chen said it was his mission to safeguard the lives and property of the Taiwanese people, and that he hoped the public would support his decision on the council and guidelines.
Branding the unification council and guidelines as "products of absurdity rendered in an absurd era" and "products created in a police state," Chen said that the KMT had failed to ask the public whether they wanted the council or guidelines when they were established 15 years ago.
"It [the KMT] openly stripped the people of their democratic right to choose, and I believe most Taiwanese people do not want to continue to accept such an historical absurdity," the president said.
China, in its first official statement on the matter, criticized Chen yesterday for "leading the nation towards disaster" and "endangering regional peace."
The statement called the move Chen's "first step toward his goal of achieving de jure independence for Taiwan."
"We will never permit Taiwan independence and splittist forces under any name or under any form to separate Taiwan from the motherland," China's Taiwan Affairs Office said in the statement.
It added that Taiwan's independence movement was "doomed to failure" and that Chen's strategy was a threat to cross-strait relations.
Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said that China's reaction revealed how little it knew about Taiwan and its democracy.
"Taiwan has, over the past several years, developed into a sovereign and independent country and its sovereignty belongs to the 23 million people of Taiwan. Only the people of Taiwan have the right to change its future. If China still can't recognize this situation, I think it will continue to make mistakes about Taiwan, including this one it has made today," he said yesterday.
Wu said that China's push for unification should also be regarded as an attempt to unilaterally change the cross-strait "status quo."
He also rebutted Beijing's claim of sovereignty over Taiwan, saying it was "contradictory" to the current reality, in which the China and Taiwan have no jurisdiction over each other.
Additional reporting by Chang Yun-ping
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique