Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming’s (柯建銘) proposal to facilitate cross-strait dialogue by freezing the party’s so-called “Taiwan independence clause” was again the subject of debate among academics and party members yesterday, with former DPP lawmaker Julian Kuo (郭正亮) and National Chengchi University professor Tung Cheng-yuan (童振源) supporting the initiative.
Most DPP members, including Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), oppose the proposal, which was submitted by Ker at a meeting to discuss the party’s China policy on Thursday, saying that it betrays the party’s founding spirit.
DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) voiced his opposition to the plan on Facebook, saying that it “reflected the DPP’s dilemma over safeguarding Taiwan’s sovereignty, while fostering DPP-Chinese Communist Party dialogue, as well as its predicament of determining what its position is amid increasing bilateral exchanges.”
“The DPP wants better relations with Beijing, but has been hawkish on almost every cross-strait issue in the legislature,” Tuan said.
Kuo disagreed, writing in a post on Facebook and in a column on news site formosa.com that freezing the clause would help stabilize cross-strait ties because, by leaving certain options open, it “hints that the DPP could change the ‘status quo’ by staging a referendum on the nation’s name if it returns to power.”
Kuo urged party members to look at the proposal as a temporary freeze aimed “only at trying to rule out that establishing a new country is the only option [for the DPP],” rather than as a call to abolish the clause.
Citing anonymous sources, Kuo said the initiative represented more than just Ker’s “personal opinion” because the caucus whip had held private discussions with high-ranking party officials before he presented it on Thursday.
The proposal was likely tabled as a response to Beijing’s opposition to the “constitutionalism consensus,” which is tipped to become the DPP’s foundation for cross-strait engagement pending a series of meetings to decide the issue, Kuo added.
Tung praised Ker’s initiative as “the first step toward promoting cross-strait reconciliation” as the independence charter, which aims to establish the Republic of Taiwan (ROT), is “unfit for the current political situation and does not serve the nation’s interests.”
The professor, who served as Mainland Affairs Council deputy vice chairman during the former DPP administration, said that the “democratic Republic of China system,” which functions like all the other democracies, is the consensus of Taiwanese.
“In other words, the legitimacy of the Republic of China has been widely accepted,” he added.
The clause could mislead the public into thinking that the DPP would draft a new Constitution and push for the establishment of the ROT if it returns to power, Tung said, adding that the party neither has the desire nor the capability to establish the independent republic.
DPP Central Executive Committee member Hung Chi-kune (洪智坤) said that the party has fallen into a trap, because dialogue with the Chinese Communist Party will not happen unless Beijing accepts the DPP’s ideology and political assertions. However, the essential issue should be how the DPP can best approach engagement with the Chinese party, Hung said.
“There are other solutions to this dilemma. Safeguarding Taiwan’s sovereignty and ensuring cross-strait peace should not be on the different ends of the spectrum in a zero-sum game,” he said.
The necessity of freezing the clause is debatable, Hung said.
“If more than 70 percent of respondents prefer eventually having an independent Taiwan [as seen in a recent poll], then why is Taiwan independence a box office bomb?” he added.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
STILL ON THE TABLE: The government is not precluding advanced nuclear power generation if it is proven safer and the nuclear waste issue is solved, the premier said Taiwan is willing to be in step with the world by considering new methods of nuclear energy generation and to discuss alternative approaches to provide more stable power generation and help support industries, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. The government would continue to develop diverse and green energy solutions, which include considering advances in nuclear energy generation, he added. Cho’s remarks echoed President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments in an interview last month, saying the government is not precluding “advanced and newer nuclear power generation” if it is proven to be safer and the issue of nuclear waste is resolved. Lai’s comment had
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare