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Government hopes referendum will kick-start dialogue

The government hopes the referendum proposed by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) can revive dialogue with the regime in China, Mainland Affairs Council Chair-woman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.

On Tuesday, Chen suggested establishing a demilitarized zone between Taiwan and China and appointing special envoys to each other's capitals.

His remarks relate to the second question in the referendum, which asks if the public wants the government to negotiate with China on a "peace and stability" framework.

Over the past four years, Tsai said at a press conference yesterday to explain Chen's speech, cross-strait talks have been frozen by the political precondition set by China, which demands Taiwan accept the "one China" principle if it wants to have dialogue.

Stressing that Taiwan cannot accept the "one China" principle no matter which political party is in power, Tsai said the government now hopes that "the power of the people's will" displayed in the March referendum will bring the leaders in Beijing to the negotiating table with their Taiwanese counterparts.

Tsai did not confirm whether the council had informed the Chinese authorities of Taiwan's plans to establish demilitarized zones and send special envoys before Chen unveiled the "peace and stability framework" on Tuesday.

Tsai reassured China and the international society that the referendum was neither a step toward Taiwan's independence nor an act to unilaterally change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.

Another vital aim of the vote, Tsai said, was to correct China's misunderstanding of the differences between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its blue-camp rivals, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP).

But she did not say when asked what differences she was referring to, nor how the referendum might reveal what these differences were.

She neither confirmed nor denied the suggestion that the fundamental difference between the DPP and the blue camp was in their views of Taiwan's independence.

The DPP has a long history of campaigning for Taiwan's independence, while the KMT and the PFP have been more pro-China.

"If China has unrealistic expectations about the scale of the differences between the blue camp and the green camp, the referendum will show that its expectations have been wrong," Tsai said.

Although most voters are likely to give positive answers to the referendum questions, Tsai said the government would be prepared to review the wording and the ideas behind the referendum if the vote does not go as expected.
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