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Lu dismisses report of planned visit to China

Former vice president Annette Lu speaks to reporters in Taipei yesterday. PHOTO: EPA

Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday dismissed speculation that she would visit China in March, saying that she would do so only if the arrangement was made in an open, equal and dignified manner.

Lu said she had not received any official invitation to visit. If she did, Lu said, she would think about it open-mindedly.

“I would seriously consider whether it would be conducive to the positive development of cross-strait relations,” she said. “The arrangement must be open, equal and dignified.”

Lu said that as the only former vice president to have served two four-year terms, she would be careful with her words and actions, adding that she would not “easily” visit China unless the arrangement was made appropriately. She also asked the media to refrain from spinning the matter out of proportion.

Lu made the remarks in response to a report published by Next Magazine yesterday.

The report said that Lu planned to visit China in March in her capacity as president of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW) Taiwan. The BPW has consultative status at the UN.

The report said that during the trip, Lu was likely to meet Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平), a front-runner to succeed Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) as Communist Party leader in 2012 and president in 2013.

While many, including Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members, have questioned whether the DPP has a concrete China policy, Lu said that the cross-strait policy implemented during the DPP administration was the realization of the party’s China policy.

While the DPP is now in opposition, Lu urged the party to refrain from distancing itself from what was accomplished during its eight years in power and to grow in response to the overwhelming changes in relations with China.

“If the DPP still wants to represent Taiwan and thinks they can still protect Taiwan, they cannot stay aloof from the peril brought by the dramatic changes,” she said.

Lu called on her party to take the matter seriously and discuss it in a calm and rational matter after next month’s local elections.

Saying the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is dancing the “tango of peaceful unification” with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Lu said the two parties are plotting a “3-3-3” scheme, in which they plan to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), create a military confidence-building mechanism and sign a peace treaty before 2011 by using the KMT-CCP forum and the cross-strait forum between the Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait as communication platforms.

“China is attempting a ‘soft unification’ with Taiwan,” she said. “We need more wisdom and rationality in the face of this dangerous challenge.”

After Hu expressed the hope to see “complete unification” during his Chinese National Day address on Oct. 1, Lu said the modernization of the People’s Liberation Army was aimed at attacking Taiwan to attain the goal of unification.

However, neither the commander-in-chief — President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) — nor the Mainland Affairs Council or legislative caucuses responded to Hu’s remark, she said, adding that the silence was the “worst crisis among the crises.”
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