A spokesperson for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday downplayed remarks by a former DPP government official who suggested that a DPP administration would introduce major changes in relations with Beijing.
Former Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) told a conference in the US on Tuesday that the so-called “1992 consensus,” which the DPP has rejected, could be dropped as part of cross-strait exchanges.
Future dialogue with China could also be replaced with the “Macau Model” used by the administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to initiate talks on cross-strait chartered flights in 2005, Wu said.
A future DPP administration, he said, would not “close the door on direct dealings between -[Chinese] government officials and our government officials,” referring to the model that saw officials talk to each other on a non-official basis.
However, a spokesperson for the party said Wu’s remarks were an expression of his own opinion and did not necessarily reflect the official position of the DPP.
Those remarks “represented [Wu’s] own personal opinion, and the DPP was not informed beforehand,” party spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said.
Wu, who served under Chen as Taiwan’s envoy to Washington, also said he did not speak for the party.
The unusual rebuke from the DPP for Wu, long associated with the DPP and its China policies, comes as newly confirmed DPP presidential candidate and party chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) seeks to develop her own cross-strait policies for the upcoming election.
Tsai, also a former MAC chairperson, has promised a more “consistent and moderate” policy, but has so not offered any specifics on how future relations would be handled or how discussions would be held.
Sources connected to the party said the denial of Wu’s remarks was intended to provide Tsai with more room to formulate her own policies on the topic, seen as a major election issue on which she will face tough questions.
“Tsai has said over and over again that Taiwan would seek a peaceful and stable relationship with China, as long as such a relationship was transparent and did not come with political preconditions,” Lin said.
The DPP would also pragmatically deal with the “necessary” cross-strait discussions, he said.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS