Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun said in Washington on Thursday that if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) won the presidency in 2008, it would tilt toward China at the expense of ties with the US, and that Taiwan's relations with Japan would suffer.
Moreover, he said, a KMT victory would subject Taiwan to the same fate as Hong Kong under Chinese rule, with the erosion of freedoms that Hong Kong has experienced in recent years.
"If the KMT were to win in 2008, I forecast confidently that the KMT leaders would most likely adopt a policy of equilibrium between the US and China, thus weakening Taiwan-Japan relations," Yu said in an address at the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation.
As a result, "democracy in Taiwan would have the same experience as Hong Kong, where democratic forces have suffered," Yu said.
He made his comments in a speech contrasting the rise of democracy in Taiwan with the situation in China, calling for international efforts to assure the establishment of democracy in China as a way to assure China's "rise" would be peaceful.
Yu hit out at statements made by KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) during his visit to Washington in March, during which Ma outlined a program seeking a long-term "modus vivendi" with Beijing based on a 50-year "peace" agreement, with extensive cross-strait exchanges and economic integration.
"I personally consider his standpoint as a `Band-Aid for trouble' because if we do not actively advance China's democratization, cross-strait stability is unlikely to be preserved, and conflict can be anticipated," Yu said.
He said that Ma "makes no mention of national sovereignty, much less democratic values, and tries [his] best to please China for supposedly preserving cross-strait stability."
Yu painted a stark picture of contrasts between the DPP and KMT, saying the DPP "believes that Taiwan is a sovereign and independent country and the KMT believes that Taiwan is a part of China," and that the DPP emphasizes democracy while the KMT stresses nationalism.
"When it comes to Taiwan's future, the DPP bases its vision on Western expectations and stands with Western democratic countries. Meanwhile, the KMT completely bases its future on China's expectations," Yu said.
Yu made his comments just hours before he left Washington at the end of a three-day round of meetings with congressmen, think tanks, government officials and media groups, to return home to Taipei.
An earlier planned stopover in Los Angeles had to be canceled, officials accompanying Yu said, because of the importance of returning home early, in view of the anti-Chen protests and related domestic issues.
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