Presidential election 2008: 15 days to go: Hsieh camp takes Siew to task over 'one China' policy

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) campaign yesterday called on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice presidential candidate Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) to apologize for flip-flopping on his "one China market" proposal.

Playing a segment of a radio program about Siew's "cross-strait common market" concept, Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦), a Hsieh campaign spokesman, told the press conference that the core values of Siew's concept are a "one China market," "a win-win situation for both sides" and "three steps toward the goal."

The three steps are "cross-strait transportation links," "an agreement on trade reciprocity" and "a uniform currency and no tariffs," Cheng said.

Cheng urged Siew to act responsibly and refrain from flinching when his theories are challenged.

When questioned by the Hsieh camp, Siew initially accused the rival camp of distorting his idea but later conceded that he had used the term "one China market" in discussing his "cross-strait common market" platform.

Siew, however, argued that his economic policy would not lead to unification with China.

Cheng said yesterday that Siew's proposal to allow the free flow of currency, people, capital, products and services would "poison" rather than "invigorate" the domestic economy.

Hsieh Hsin-ni (謝欣霓), another Hsieh spokesperson, said she would like to know why Siew changed his position so quickly when he came under pressure and why the key values of his concept became useless all of a sudden when they were questioned.

"How does he expect people to believe that he can put his theory into practice if they win?" she said.

During a visit to a temple in Beitou (北投) in Taipei yesterday afternoon, Frank Hsieh said he opposed the "one China market" because it was detrimental to the Taiwanese public and the local labor market.

Once Chinese workers are allowed into the country, local workers will have a hard time finding a job, he said.

Instead of establishing a "common market," Hsieh said that he had proposed strengthening the crackdown on Chinese products smuggled into the country, tightening inspections of Chinese food products and toys, lowering the inheritance tax to 10 percent, cutting income taxes and attracting global capital to invest in Taiwan.

Meanwhile, the DPP caucus yesterday again criticized KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) policy proposal of recognizing Chinese degrees, saying it would seriously impact on Taiwan's job market.

"In China, a fake high school diploma costs 200 yuan and a fake college diploma costs NT$1,000, and these fake diplomas are available almost everywhere," DPP legislative caucus whip Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) said. "If Ma recognizes Chinese degrees, Taiwan's human resource market will be flooded with people with fake degrees."

DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said she was concerned that the nation's 172 universities and colleges would have a difficult time recruiting students and the 500,000 people whose jobs are related to schools would be under threat if Chinese degrees were recognized.

Additional reporting by Jimmy Chuang