Vice President Annette Lu yesterday congratulated China on its 53rd anniversary and praised its economic progress, adding that she hopes Taiwan's big neighbor can put aside political feuding and seek peaceful co-existence with Taiwan.
"While I, as vice president, sincerely congratulate the People's Republic of China [PRC] on its National Day, I also hope the PRC, as a big country, will not forget its responsibility of contributing to peace and progress in Asia and the Pacific," Lu said during an interview with the Voice of America (VOA) radio station's Chinese department.
She stressed that solving the cross-strait conflict can't just depend on economic issues because the main dispute between the two countries revolves around different concepts of humane behavior.
"Both sides should inspect their ideologies and negotiate to seek common ground within these different viewpoints," Lu said, "and the most important common ideal is to maintain peace."
Lu's appeals were broadcast via the VOA to China yesterday morning. She praised China for successfully emerging as a rich and powerful country, the result of hard work and much struggle by the Chinese government and its people.
She said she, on behalf of the DPP government, admired China's achievement but also urged that the leaders of both sides should adopt new thoughts on creating a new era of cross-strait relationships and thereby make their contribution to world peace.
"People on both sides of the Strait share the same bloodline. As distant relatives and close neighbors, we shouldn't deal with each other through force but we should co-exist peacefully, cooperate and share," Lu said.
The vice president went on to restate Taipei's rejection of the "one China" framework that had been designed by Beijing with the aim of reuniting the two rivals, who were separated in 1949 at the end of long and bitter civil war.
"We cannot accept `one China.' But we think that, for the new generation, new thoughts can be added to the `Chung Hua' [Chinese, 中華] notion," she said.
She explained that the term "Chung Hua" describes a more general unifying concept of Chinese history and culture, with fewer political connotations.
"The so-called `Chung Hua' has been discussed with three different emphases: the political Chung Hua, economic Chung Hua and cultural Chung Hua," Lu said.
Lu then accused Beijing of "merciless suppression" for trying to completely exclude Taiwan from international organizations.
"Most Taiwan businessmen invest a lot of money in China as cross-strait communication increases. They have helped boost China's economic prosperity with capital, technology and management skills," Lu said. "Yet China does its best to threaten and suppress Taiwan."
"Under such circumstances," Lu said, "How can you ask Taiwan to like China? What will Taiwanese feel about that? And how will Chinese of conscience, courage and uprightness feel about this?"
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