The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday denied it is already in the process of opening talks with China.
The party made the rebuttal following a Reuters interview with DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), which quoted Tsai as saying: “The [DPP] has already organized a group of scholars and non-governmental organizations to open talks [with China].”
In a press briefing, DPP spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) yesterday said Tsai did not address the issue during the interview, which took place in English. <>
He also denied that the DPP had any plans to organize a group for such a purpose.
The party later released a statement to add: “What Chairperson Tsai said during the interview was that there are many non-governmental organizations and think tanks that the DPP has long relationships with … If China engages in dialogue with these groups, it will help them understand more about the DPP.”
“However, Taiwan is a democratic society, and these groups are independent and are not part of the DPP,” the statement said.
The DPP’s China policies have come under increasing attention after a series of public comments made by Tsai hinted at a subtle shift in how the party would conduct future cross-strait dialogue.
Tsai said in the interview that the DPP would “pursue a separate dialogue mechanism with Beijing, possibly under the umbrella of an outside organization, to seek peace and ‘teach Beijing about the island’s democracy.’”
The remarks were consistent with comments Tsai made to a gathering of international media outlets last week.
She said the DPP would not be opposed to engaging in direct dialogue with Beijing if there were no political preconditions.
She also said future relations with China would be more “more stable and consistent,” comments that have been widely interpreted by political analysts as a move away from former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) China policies.
Speaking to the Taipei Times, cross-strait affairs expert and former Mainland Affairs Council vice-chairman Alexander Huang (黃介正) said that Tsai’s announcement was made to pacify critics of the DPP’s China policies and show that it could “responsibly handle cross-strait relations.”
The latest opinion poll released by the party found Tsai’s China policies have drawn wide acceptance among DPP supporters, with 86 percent of those polled saying that they supported her stance.
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