President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) challenged the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday to produce concrete evidence that he has jeopardized Taiwan’s sovereignty and urged them to be practical and flexible.
“I would like to ask the DPP where it wants to take the country in cross-strait relations,” he said. “If they want to go back to the eight years before we came to power, it is impossible ... It is clear what would happen. You cannot accomplish anything nor can you go anywhere.”
Ma said his cross-strait policy has gained local and international recognition and he didn’t think he had made any mistakes.
“If sovereignty was lost, I can get it back,” he said. “But nobody can tell me exactly what was lost.”
Ma made the remarks during a news conference to mark the first anniversary of his inauguration on May 20 last year.
Ma said he welcomed the opposition’s criticism, but said it must be rational and practical. He said there was room for improvement in his policies, but he hoped DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) would agree to talk instead of insisting on a debate, because it would only benefit both parties if they could reach a consensus.
Ma said the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution is a “one China” Constitution, and before both sides of the Taiwan Strait could talk about unification or independence, he would suggest “mutual non-denial” of each other’s existence.
Although critics complained that school textbooks are vague about Taiwan’s sovereignty, Ma said it should be made clear to the public that the sovereignty of the ROC belongs to the people.
“Taiwan is the ROC,” he said. “We should clear this up from a historical and constitutional viewpoint. The public must not be confused into thinking Taiwan’s sovereignty is undefined. We should never let anyone distort history for political reasons.”
Ma said the nine agreements and a joint statement his administration signed with Beijing are conductive to Taiwan’s development and none have hurt Taiwan or echoed China’s political overtures.
His administration’s definition of cross-strait relations was not new, he said, because former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) introduced the idea that Taiwan and China are two regions under the framework of the ROC Constitution and former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) did not alter that stance.
“I would like to ask the opposition if they would have agreed to participate in the World Health Assembly [WHA] meeting this year under the same circumstances if they were in power,” he said. “I would like to know whether it would be rational to reject or even withdraw from the event simply because the WHA did not call us Taiwan.”
Saying the answer to his questions were clear, Ma urged the public to cherish the opportunity to participate in the WHA. His government would like to participate under the name ROC or Taiwan, but it was not feasible at the moment.
“The former DPP administration tried but failed. During the process, they also sabotaged the country’s relationship with its allies,” he said.
Taiwan had joined the WTO in 2002 under the name “Chinese Taipei” and if the DPP didn’t like the name it should have opposed it in 2002, Ma said.
“We are practical and flexible. That is how we win the respect and sympathy of the international community,” he said. “Aggression leads to nothing and earns us the name of troublemaker.”
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