The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), a political party soon to be formed by a group of supporters of former president Lee Teng-hui, announced yesterday that Lee might attend its inaugural congress Aug. 12 but will not become party chairman.
TSU convener Huang Chu-wen, a former minister of the interior, said that while Lee is willing to help the party out of his sense of idealism and responsibility, it would be "slighting Lee" to think that he would head the party.
Commenting on the TSU's policy platform, Huang said that the party hopes to stabilize the political situation, revive the economy, consolidate democracy and strengthen Taiwan.
He said that the party's policy toward Beijing is based on "Taiwan first, public referendum and cross-Taiwan Strait exchanges."
Huang said that bilateral exchanges should be based on the principles of democracy and reciprocity and that China should renounce its threat of force against Taiwan while gradually establishing peaceful and constructive cooperative relations.
He went on to say that TSU cross-strait policy guidelines demand that any changes to the status quo in bilateral relations must be decided by the 23 million people of Taiwan through a fair and public referendum without any coercion from "outside forces."
Huang noted that former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping once said that the issue of cross-strait relations can wait another 50 years before it has to be resolved.
Huang added that he also believes that another 30 years would not be too long of a wait because he is certain that China will embrace democracy after its economic development reaches a certain level.
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