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TSU calls on Washington to update TRA

On the 26th anniversary of the enactment of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) urged the US to add a clause that enables the people of Taiwan to have rights to determine their own future since China's approved "Anti-Secession" Law has unilaterally ruined the status-quo of the Taiwan Strait.

"China's Anti-Secession Law not only unilaterally sabotages the cross-strait status-quo but also violates the TRA," TSU Secretary-General Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) told a new conference yesterday.

Chen said the US established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC) on Jan. 1, 1979 and simultaneously terminated its relations with the Republic of China (ROC).

In order to preserve relations between the people of the US and the people of Taiwan, Washington enacted the TRA in the same year, which became effective after then president Jimmy Carter signed it on April 10, 1979. Since then, the TRA has played an indispensable role in shaping US policy toward Taiwan and Washington's strategy in Asia, Chen said.

"However, the passage of the Anti-Secession Law has violated section 2 of the TRA," Chen said.

That section commits the US "to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States."

"Therefore, we urge the US to revise the TRA and add a section that stipulates the people of Taiwan have the right to decide their own future according to the United Nations' Charter," Chen said.

The TSU also urged the US to support Taiwan to join in the World Health Organization as soon as possible, according to the section 4 of the TRA, which states "Nothing in this Act may be construed as a basis for supporting the exclusion or expulsion of Taiwan from continued membership in any international financial institution or any other international organization."

TSU caucus whip Lo Chih-ming (羅志明) said that the TRA is clear proof that the US recognizes the fact that Taiwan and China are two separate regimes and he urged the pan-blue camp not to fall into the trap of the "one China" principle.

"The Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] and the People First Party [PFP] compete with each other to pay tribute to China and attempt to conduct unauthorized negotiations with China, which reflects their confusion of their roles," Lo said.

Lo urged KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) not to think they could assume President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) power.

He called on them to insist on Taiwan's sovereignty when they talk with Chinese officials.

Meanwhile, Chen Chien-ming yesterday asked Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to debate with the TSU. His call follows Ma's comments that "the TSU was out of its mind so it paid homage to Japan's Yasukuni Shrine" and "China is not a foreign country to Taiwan."

"The reasons that Ma called the TSU lunatic was because he bears a Chinese mindset and a viewpoint slanting to Beijing," Chen Chien-ming said. "We want Ma to debate about what he said. Otherwise he should apologize to the TSU."

As of press time last night, Ma had not yet responded to the TSU's demand.
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