Taiwan’s letter of intent to become a founding member of China’s proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was signed by Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和), but lacked his full title as minister of finance beneath his signature.
A copy of the cover letter and the letter of intent shown at a news conference, hosted by Chang and Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) at 10:50pm on Tuesday, showed that neither was printed on government letterhead stationery, while the official name of the nation and the ministry were also absent.
Chang told reporters after the briefing that ministry’s emblem was originally printed on the letters, but was taken out after discussions between the council and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) regarding the application.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
In response to questions as to why the nation’s name was not mentioned and in what capacity he wrote the letters, Chang said he signed the letter as “minister,” and not in his personal capacity.
Several Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday condemned the government for denigrating the nation’s status by omitting its name in the letters.
“Not only was the Chang’s official title not used, but the name of the Republic of China [ROC] was not included as part of the ministry’s address in the contact information. It was a complete denigration of the nation,” DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
Chen said that the ministry’s address was written as — 2, Aiguo W Road, Taipei, Taiwan, 10066 — meant that Taiwan was not treated as a nation, but rather as a region of China, because otherwise the postal code should have been placed before Taiwan, as is the norm.
Making a pun of buzhang (minister, 部長), DPP Legislator Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) asked if “Chang was the buzhang of a xiaochibu [refreshment stand, 小吃部] or of a lifabu [hair salon, 理髮部].”
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said the ambiguous term of “minister” was a way to address Chang that was acceptable to China and upheld the nation’s dignity.
China would have rejected the application had the letters been signed by Chang as “Minister of Finance, Republic of China,” Lai said.
“‘Minister’ suggested that he was a minister from Taiwan,” he added.
According to the council, copies of the letters were faxed to the TAO at about 7pm on Tuesday, while the Ministry of Finance faxed another set of copies to the AIIB’s Interim Secretariat at about 9pm after the council acquired its contact information from the TAO.
The Ministry of Finance transmitting the letters directly to the AIIB was in reaction to public uproar against President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) decision at a national security meeting on Monday to have the application filed through the TAO.
TAO spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) yesterday told a news conference in Beijing that the agency had received Taiwan’s letter of intent and welcomed its participation under the “proper name.”
However, as of press time last night, the Chinese Ministry of Finance, which updates data on AIIB membership applications on its Web site by issuing a welcome note to applicants, had not published information about Taiwan’s application.
Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying (華春瑩) on Tuesday said that Taiwan’s application to join the AIIB “should avoid the issues of “two Chinas,” or “one China, one Taiwan.”
In Taipei, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday panned the government’s decision to submit its application through the TAO, calling it degrading.
Taiwan’s entry into an international organization is a serious issue that requires a complete and professional assessment, as well as communication with the legislature and the public, she said.
“The government’s decision to apply to join the AIIB has been rather hasty, as it lacks prior assessment,” she said.
“The decisionmaking process is opaque and disrespectful to the legislature,” Tsai said.
“There is so much opposition from the public, because the government has made an international matter a cross-strait one,” she added.
Tsai said the AIIB is an international organization with its own preparatory office, making the Presidential Office’s decision to ask the council to submit the application via the TAO seriously degrading to the nation.
“The government has set a very bad example,” Tsai said.
“It is unimaginable that the KMT government would still make such a mistake after being in power for seven years,” the DPP chairperson added.
Additional reporting by Loa Iok-sin and CNA
This story has been corrected since it was first published.
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