In the last of a series of 10 debates on the March 20 referendum, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (
The council proposed to President Chen Shui-bian (
Over the years, Tsai said, China has put pressure on Taiwan in the international theater and attempted to isolate the country. China's growing economic power is helping it to pressure other countries to join in to restrict the diplomatic space in which Taiwan can operate.
Describing cross-strait relations as "ever-changing," Tsai said that Taiwan can no longer resort to old approaches that it used in the 1990s to open a dialogue with China.
"We have to restructure cross-strait communications," she said.
Tsai discussed the difficulties Taiwan faces in the international community as a result of its relationship with China, and said the government needs the public's help in handling cross-strait issues.
"History tells us that, in small places, if people display their strong power, they will be able to influence situations. With people's support for our referendum, China will find it hard to continue its efforts to split Taiwan's solidarity," Tsai said.
Sisy Chen, a Democratic Progressive Party defector who has been calling for voters to oppose the referendum, said the question concerning the cross-strait peace framework does not solve the fundamental problem in negotiations with China.
Taiwan failed to reopen talks with China because it would not accept the 1992 "one country, two systems" formula and the "one China" principle, Chen said.
Chen asked Tsai why the government had not asked the people to vote on whether Taiwan should declare its independence.
Voters should think about whether the referendum results can change anything, Chen said. If the referendum questions do not touch on the difficult issues in cross-strait relations then it is doubtful that the vote's outcome will help overcome the problems inherent in the dialogue, Chen said.
Saying that the referendum was only one of Chen Shui-bian's (
The legislator asked Tsai why the wording of the second question fails to require that Taiwan and China have equal standing in any dialogue.
The lack of agreement between China and Taiwan over Taiwan's sovereignty has hampered cross-strait talks, she added.
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