The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday rejected speculation that the party would draw up a new resolution on Taiwan’s status.
DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said the Resolution on Taiwan’s Future (台灣前途決議文) was the bottom line and there was no need to write a new resolution to replace it.
The resolution states that Taiwan is an independent and sovereign country and that change to the “status quo” of independence should require the approval of the people of Taiwan in a national referendum. Taiwan does not belong to the People’s Republic of China, the resolution says, rejecting the “one China” principle and “one country, two systems” model promoted by China.
Tsai made the remarks in response to questions about a report published in the Chinese-language United Evening Express yesterday. The report claimed the DPP was planning to draft a resolution on the nation’s sovereignty and future development to be debated at the party’s National Congress on July 20.
The report said the Party Reform Task Force formed a five-person team to author the draft. The new resolution would emphasize the importance of Taiwan’s sovereignty and undertake to differentiate the DPP from the pro-unification Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the report said.
DPP Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) yesterday dismissed the report as “groundless.”
Individual members of the task force may have had the idea of proposing a new resolution, but the party has no plan to do so, Cheng said.
Cheng said the newspaper had confused the facts, and the five-person team was indeed tasked with looking into revising the party platform. The task force, which meets twice a week, will look at three main issues: revising the party platform, internal party discipline and the party’s evaluation and nomination processes, Cheng said. The task force will propose a reform package on June 18 for debate at the National Congress.
The task force met yesterday. It’s work is ongoing and it has not reached its conclusions yet, Cheng said, adding that the group would meet again tomorrow.
Former DPP legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康), a member of the task force, filed a motion yesterday to restore the party’s Department of Chinese Affairs, which was integrated with the Department of International Affairs. The party must have a separate unit to examine cross-strait issues as formal cross-strait talks are set to begin next Wednesday, he said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
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