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Taiwan will respect public opinion, says representative to US

Taiwan is already a fully fledged democracy and public opinion must be fully respected in the country's dealings with China, Taiwan's Vice Representative to the US Tsai Ming-shin (蔡明憲) said Tuesday.

Stressing that public opinion must be fully taken into account when forging Taiwan's relationship with China, Tsai said "independence," like "unification" or "maintaining the status-quo," is just one of Taiwan's options for its future.

He called for prosperous and peaceful co-existence between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait until Taiwan makes a final decision on its future. He also urged China to withdraw the missiles it has deployed aimed at Taiwan, which he pointed out will only provoke anti-Chinese sentiment among the people of Taiwan.

Tsai said Taiwan would remain firm to the "five nos" commitment made by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in his May 20, 2000 inauguration speech and added that "such a stance should help maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait."

The "five nos" refer to: no declaration of Taiwanese independence unless China attacks; no change of the Republic of China as Taiwan's official name; no insertion of the "two-states" theory into the Constitution; no plebiscite on Taiwan's future; and no abolishment of the Guidelines for National Unification.

Tsai made the remarks at a forum sponsored by a non-profit and independent "Cross Strait Research Institute" -- a think tank which was established in February in Washington to study cross-strait ties.

The organization is slated to open chapters in Taipei and Shanghai later this year.

The roundtable forum was held to observe the impact of the recent visit to the US by Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) on Taipei-Beijing-Washington links.

Several prominent academics and officials from Taiwan, China and Hong Kong attended the forum.
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