Both the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday threw their support behind DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (
DPP Legislator Wang Shu-hui (
"Independence advocates understand that the presidential candidate needs to deal with different levels [of the issue]," she said. "Although there is a gap between the presidential candidate's words and their ideals, they can understand and are willing to support [him]."
In a speech delivered at the National Press Club in Washington on Monday, Hsieh said the US should not worry that a UN referendum bid could lead to a popular vote on whether to declare de jure independence.
"I don't believe the US should be worried about that, because I believe Taiwan is already an independent country, and there is no need to promote Taiwanese independence as a movement," Hsieh said at the time, adding that a referendum on the issue was unnecessary.
When asked for comment, TSU caucus whip Tseng Tsahn-deng (曾燦燈) said that Hsieh's words echoed former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). Lee told Next Magazine in a January interview that the issue of independence versus unification should be abandoned because Taiwan is already an independent nation.
Former acting Kaohsiung mayor Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), who has expressed interest in becoming Hsieh's running mate, said yesterday that Hsieh's comments were a reiteration of the DPP's Resolution on Taiwan's Future (台灣前途決議文).
In the 1999 resolution, the party says that Taiwan is an independent country named the "Republic of China."
"Taiwan elects its own president. If it were not an independent state, how could it elect its president? What is the meaning of electing its own president then?" she said. "I think this is a basic democratic belief."
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Hsieh's gray area of reassurance
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