TSU won't help KMT with no-confidence vote on Su

The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) will guard against any dangerous tilt toward China in the Executive Yuan's policy, but there is no chance of its cooperating with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to oust Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) with a no-confidence vote, the TSU's legislative caucus whip said yesterday.

Legislator David Huang (黃適卓) made the commnets after yesterday's Chinese-language China Times reported that the TSU was not ruling out the possibility of toppling Su in conjunction with the KMT after the Conference on Sustaining Taiwan's Economic Development accepted a proposal to ease restrictions on economic exchanges with China, despite the TSU's strong opposition.

Calling the proposal an attempt by Su to appease business interests requesting greater freedom to invest in China, the TSU delegation walked out of the conference yesterday in protest, vowing to fight tooth and nail against Su's attempts to revise the policy laid down by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

Contradicting the newspaper report that KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has asked a KMT team to assess the possibility of getting rid of the premier by riding the wave of the TSU's discontent with the Cabinet, Huang said the KMT would not bring Su down in light of the fact that Su's "revised path" is in full agreement with what the KMT has always advocated.

The KMT has toyed with the idea of getting rid of the premier just to embarrass Chen after the party's failure to bring him down with a presidential recall motion, Huang said, adding the TSU would never play into the KMT's hands by colluding with it to vote against Su with a no-confidence vote.

The TSU will boycott the Executive Yuan's budget in the legislature and organize public rallies against its policies if Su dares to go ahead with any policy promoting close economic ties with China, lifting current restrictions on investment in China or prohibiting direct cross-strait flights, but they won't attempt to topple the Cabinet in cooperation with the KMT, Huang said.