Ten of the nation’s largest pro--independence organizations yesterday issued a blunt rebuke to former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) over his suggestion that Taiwan use the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution in future negotiations with China.
The Taiwan Society, Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan and other groups said Hsieh’s ideas on a “constitutional consensus” would undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty.
Hsieh, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Standing Committee member, said on Monday that a new accord was needed to replace the disputed “1992 consensus” used by the government as a foundation for cross-strait talks.
His proposal implicitly asks DPP supporters to accept the ROC’s sovereignty over Taiwan as the “greatest common denominator.”
Hsieh’s proposal can “never be accepted” and would likely not help in cross-strait relations, the groups said in a statement. The “constitutional consensus” would undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty movement and cause more confusion over the country’s international status, they said.
“Hsieh clearly knows that accepting the ROC Constitution would draw a distinction between [Taiwan’s] national sovereignty and national governance,” the statement said, ostensibly referring to clauses in the document that include territory controlled by the People’s Republic of China as part of the ROC.
“There are also serious contradictions within the ROC Constitution on historical jurisdiction and [the current] geographical jurisdiction,” the statement said. “These [contradictions] show just how shaky the grounds are on which Hsieh’s proposal is based.”
In a not so subtle warning against politicians within the DPP that support Hsieh, the statement also said that pro-independence backers would likely reconsider their support for Hsieh if he continued to make statements that “harmed Taiwan’s sovereignty.”
Hsieh said on his Web site yesterday morning that a “constitutional consensus” would help protect Taiwan against pressure for unification with China, which he said was “subtly taking place.”
“My [proposal] is to search for an accord with supporters of the ‘status quo’ to achieve a consensus that is supported by the majority of Taiwanese,” Hsieh said.
Meanwhile, Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) attitude toward the “1992 consensus” had been consistent and that the administration would insist on the “three noes” under that framework and the Constitution.
The “three noes,” a pledge Ma made during his 2008 presidential election campaign, refer to no discussion of unification with Beijing during Ma’s presidency, no pursuit or support of de jure independence and no use of military force to resolve the Taiwan issue.
As for the definition of the so-called “1992 consensus,” Lo said the administration’s position has been that there is only “one China” and that both sides of the Strait had its own interpretation of what “one China” means.
Former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) said in February 2006 that he had invented the consensus in 2000 in order to break the cross-strait deadlock.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater