The Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) presidency is the materialization of mainstream democratic values, not a "recipe for potential disaster" as claimed by KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), incoming DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) said yesterday.
"When Taiwanese people used their votes to elect President Chen Shui-bian to the presidency in March 2000, it not only ended the 50-year rule of the KMT but also made real hard-won democratic values," Chang told a press conference at DPP headquarters yesterday morning.
Lien, who is on a 15-day trip to the US, told the George W. Bush administration and the world's conservative political leaders on Tuesday that the Chen presidency is a "recipe for potential disaster" in an address to an annual meeting of party leaders of the International Democratic Union in Washington.
In response, Chang said that he has no idea why Lien made such vitriolic remarks.
"The president made it clear in his inaugural speech that his cross-strait policies will be based on the four no's as long as the Chinese regime has no intention to use military force against Taiwan," Chang said. "The party has also made clear its position in its `Resolution regarding Taiwan's future' that the people of Taiwan are the arbiters of Taiwan's future and any change must be agreed upon by all Taiwanese people."
The "four no's" are no declaration of independence, no change of Taiwan's formal name from the Republic of China, no enshrining the description of cross-strait relations as "state-to-state" in nature in the Constitution, and no holding of a referendum on formal independence.
The party also reached a consensus to make the "1999 resolution regarding Taiwan's future" which claims that Taiwan is already an independent country -- thereby downplaying the seeking of formal independence -- equal to the clause in the party's charter advocating a referendum on Taiwan independence.
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