To show that the DPP is sincere about its intentions to hold an inter-party leadership summit, the party yesterday announced that a special task force has been formed to help attain this goal -- which is considered to be the most pressing political issue for the coming months.
Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), the DPP's secretary general and the head of the task force, stressed that the party will have no hidden agendas during the summit and no subjects will be closed for discussion during the meeting.
He said the task force's members -- all of whom are top party officials -- will help make the summit a reality by visiting the secretary generals of the KMT and PFP.
"It has always been the president's wish to exchange ideas with leaders [of the KMT and PFP]. The primary purpose of the meeting is to forge a consensus on issues where the ruling and opposition parties disagree. The party sets no restrictions in the choice of subjects," Chang said, after the first meeting of the Central Standing Committee that was convened by the new chairman, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
The DPP administration has had a far-from-smooth time after it took power and having to struggle with the opposition KMT and PFP, which have boycotted almost every policy tabled by the government. Considering these obstacles to fluid governance, President Chen has urged party reconciliation and expressed his hope to hold a party leadership summit.
Chen regards the summit's realization as his first major challenge after taking over the party's chairmanship on Sunday.
But Chang warned yesterday that whether the goal can be attained or not, does not depend on the DPP alone. "Us forming the task force does not guarantee the summit will materialize. The only thing the DPP can do is to demonstrate its utmost sincerity by promising to carry out all agreements that may be reached at the summit," Chang said. He added he is optimistic that the event will materialize and said that it is the public's wish to see the parties develop better relations.
Despite the DPP's appeals, party officials conceded the process is filled with difficulties.
"The two parties have given us the cold shoulder many times," said Michael You (游盈隆), the DPP's deputy secretary-general.
KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and PFP chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) on Monday threw cold water on the DPP initiative.
Lien said the DPP's plan to reach agreement among parties is just a slogan and slammed the thought of holding the summit meeting as "awkward." Soong said he would rather "stay home and sleep," than attend the summit, unless Chen clarifies a recent statement by Presidential Office Secretary General Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟). Chen Shih-meng last week said that the political summit should be held under an "anti-one-China" premise.
"The existence of these contradictory viewpoints highlight the urgent need for this meeting," Chang said in response to their criticism.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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