The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday unveiled its draft of an "anti-annexation" law that underscores Taiwan's sovereignty, its separate status from China and states that both sides of the Taiwan Strait should permanently renounce use of any non-peaceful means to unilaterally change the cross-strait status quo.
The draft is aimed at countering Beijing's proposed "anti-secession" law, said TSU caucus whip Lo Chih-ming (
According to the 11-article draft, the government should call a referendum and amend the Constitution to safeguard Taiwan's sovereignty in the event of the cross-strait status quo is threatened.
PHOTO:CNA
The president can -- according to power bestowed upon him by the Constitution -- resort to non-peaceful means to resist China's annexation, the draft states.
"This is Taiwan's 11 articles' against the 11 articles of China's anti-secession law," Lo said, referring to the legislation which is expected to be passed by China's National People's Congress in Beijing on Monday.
Stating that Taiwan has existed alongside China since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on Oct. 1, 1949, with the status quo being that the two sides are independent of each other and have no jurisdiction over each other, the draft states that "Taiwan is already an independent, sovereign state and it is not an issue for Taiwan to declare independence or seek separation from China."
Taiwan and China should maintain peace and stability across the Strait and respect each other's independence and autonomy in terms of domestic and foreign affairs, it states.
TSU Chairman Shu Chin-chiang (
"Should the Taiwan Strait be defined by China's `one China' principle as one under its jurisdiction, it would then jeopardize not only Taiwan's interests but also that of the US and Japan," Su said.
According to the draft, Taiwan and China must respect the fact of that they exist alongside each other and they should negotiate with each other on an equal footing to resolve their differences, It also states that Beijing's "one country, two systems" format for unification is unacceptable to the people of Taiwan.
Two sides should expand their economic and cultural exchanges to enhance mutual understanding and trust, said the draft, which also proposes that a cross-strait military confidence-building mechanism and code of conduct be set up to protect regional peace and stability.
Meanwhile, to help fight China's "anti-secession" legislation, the TSU said it would go all-out in support of the arm procurement budget now before the Legislative Yuan.
It would be tantamount to act of encouraging China to use force against Taiwan should the legislature fails to pass the budget, Shu said. He called on all parties to transcend partisan ideology and beef up Taiwan's national defense.
"This would allow us to show China our determination to defend ourselves," Shu said.
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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