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China proposed inviting DPP to forum, KMT says

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) welcomes other political parties to participate in the upcoming forum between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a KMT official said yesterday.

KMT spokesman Lee Chien-jung (李建榮) told reporters that the CCP had proposed inviting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members to the forum and that the KMT did not object to the proposal.

However, Lee said it should be the CCP, not the KMT, that sends out the invitations, adding that the KMT did not know who the CCP would invite.

Lee said the KMT would reveal more details about the forum during a press conference scheduled for Thursday.

Lee was approached for comment after the Chinese-language China Times quoted KMT Deputy Secretary-General Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭) as saying the CCP would invite DPP members to the forum this year.

KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) will lead a delegation to the fifth KMT-CCP forum this weekend in Changsha, Hunan Province. The story quoted a source, who was allegedly close to the DPP, as saying DPP members who had been invited and had promised to attend the forum had asked organizers not to publicize the list of attendees because they would come under pressure from party headquarters.

DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said last month that DPP members should request the party’s authorization before visiting China.

Lee said yesterday that certain important figures in the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) would also visit China in the near future, but he dismissed media speculation that the group included former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), the TSU’s spiritual leader.

DPP acting spokesman Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢) told a press conference yesterday that the KMT-CCP forum had nothing to do with the DPP, and the party had not received any invitations.

Asked to comment on how the party would react if any of its members were to attend the forum, Chuang said that party regulations stipulate that high-level party officials should request authorization from headquarters if they wish to visit China and the party would make a decision on a case-by-case basis.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG
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