We will not negotiate with bullies, Taipei official says

Taiwan will not negotiate with a regime that kills its own people and supports Myanmar's military junta, the Executive Yuan said yesterday in response to Chinese President Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) call for an end to cross-strait enmity and for Taiwan to accept its "one China" policy.

"Human rights and democracy are the foundation of the country," Government Information Office Minister Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) said.

"That is why Taiwan can connect with the world. If the Beijing administration really wants to pin its hopes on the people of Taiwan, it should listen to them and think about the people killed, imprisoned and arrested during the 38 years of martial law and 50 years of one-party rule. It should realize what price the Taiwanese have paid for human rights and democracy," he said.

While the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might rule China, it does not represent all Chinese, Shieh said.

"The Taiwanese and Chinese can stand together for democracy and human rights, but we will never discuss peace, unification or any other issues with a regime that bullies and suppresses Tibet, kills its own people and backs the military junta in Myanmar," he said.

Shieh made the remarks at an event promoting Taiwan's UN membership campaign at the Executive Yuan yesterday afternoon.

Lai I-chung (賴怡忠), director of the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Department of International Affairs, said that Hu's remarks were nothing new and were detached from reality.

"Hu does not seem to understand that `one China,' `one country, two systems,' and `peaceful unification' do not have any market in Taiwan. They are only popular among a few groups," he said. "The public opinion is that Taiwan is an independent sovereignty and Taiwan and China are two different countries. Any change to the `status quo' must obtain the consent of the Taiwanese public."

Although Hu proposed an end to cross-strait enmity, Lai said that Taiwan has never been hostile to China, while Beijing has 1,000 missiles targeted at Taiwan and seeks to limit Taiwan's diplomatic space and economic power.

"The crux of the problem does not lie in enmity but in China's unwillingness to reconcile with Taiwan," he said. "Both sides can only reconcile if China stopped its military intimidation and diplomatic oppression and recognized Taiwan's existence."

The Mainland Affairs Council issued a statement yesterday afternoon criticizing China's "one China" policy as the "biggest obstacle" in cross-strait relations, emphasizing that Taiwan's sovereignty belonged to the 23 million people of Taiwan who have the final say on the nation's future.

"China's one-party rule and bogus democracy cannot bring sustainable development to China or bring real peace to the Taiwan Strait," the statement said. "Democracy is the foundation of peaceful development across the Taiwan Strait. We are calling on the Chinese authority to abandon its rigid thinking and adopt a practical approach to face the reality that neither side is subordinate to the other."

DPP vice presidential candidate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that Beijing had to refrain from trying to force the Taiwanese public to accept its terms, and should instead respect the will of the Taiwanese to decide their future.