The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday said it would propose constitutional amendments to remove the “one country, two areas” article from the Constitution, abolish the Taiwan Provincial Government and lower the minimum voting age from 20 to 18.
An amendment made to the Constitution in 1991 “to meet the requisites prior to national unification” recognizes the “Chinese mainland area” as opposed to the “free area,” and both areas make up the Republic of China.
“The constitutional identification of ‘one country, two areas’ is the biggest joke in the history of constitutional democracy, because the idea goes against the principle of popular sovereignty, which states that the authority of a nation is created and sustained by its citizens,” NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“Taiwan is a sovereign nation with a population of 23 million people and there is no ‘Chinese mainland area’ in this nation,” he added.
Surveys have shown that more than 70 percent of Taiwanese believe that the “cross-strait relationship” is international in nature, and abolishing the “one country, two areas” article is key to normalizing Taiwan’s status and dealing with the notorious legacy of the now-defunct National Assembly, Huang said.
Abolishing the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) is a further step that needs to be taken toward the normalization of the nation, he added.
Lowering the voting age is a global trend to encourage young people to exercise their political rights, but the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) unreasonable boycott of a proposal to lower the voting age last year obstructed a potential youth empowerment and constitutional amendment, Huang said.
“There are 890,000 people aged between 14 and 16, and they can cast their first ballot in the next presidential and legislative elections in 2020 if the amendment can be put to a referendum and approved in the next nine-in-one elections in 2018,” he said.
The constitutional changes in 1998 stripped the Taiwan Provincial Government of its authority, essentially making it a nominal institution, but it still costs the nation millions of New Taiwan dollars every year, the NPP said.
Asked whether the proposed amendments would be associated with Taiwanese independence and upset China, Huang said domestic reform has to be undertaken independent of other nations’ opinions, even though attaining international recognition is an important step toward the normalization of Taiwan.
NPP Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) said no politician, regardless of their affinity, would be willing to sacrifice Taiwan’s democracy, liberty and human rights, and no one would accept China’s interference in Taiwan’s constitutional reform.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS