The Executive Yuan should come up with a bill on regulating the signing of agreements between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said on Friday.
Noting that cross-strait affairs are crucial to the nation’s survival and sustainable development, Wang said no single party or individual could solely decide on the course of development of cross-strait relations.
While cross-strait relations have been developing very quickly since the inauguration of the new Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government, Wang said the country had yet to develop a sufficient supervisory mechanism to oversee the developments.
Recalling that the previous KMT administration had twice referred bills governing the signing of cross-strait agreements to the legislature for screening, Wang, a KMT heavyweight, said he wondered why the party had not yet come up with such a proposal now that it has regained power. In his view, Wang said, cross-strait affairs should be kept as transparent as possible.
“Otherwise, disputes or controversies could arise after a bilateral accord is reached,” he said.
It is also very important that opposition parties be allowed to have a say in the process of negotiations, Wang said.
“By so doing, hindrances could be minimized in striking a cross-strait deal,” he said.
Parliamentary supervision of major policy issues is the norm in mature democratic countries, Wang said, and the lawmaking body should not be excluded from the crafting and implementation of cross-strait policies because they are critical to security, sovereignty and popular rights and interests.
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