Former premier Frank Hsieh’s (謝長廷) “constitutions with different interpretations” (憲法各表) will have no chance of becoming the consensus within the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) because it is still within the “one China” framework, former Tainan County commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) said yesterday.
Hsieh’s concept is to approach cross-strait issues using the parts of the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution that both major political parties in Taiwan can agree on, and also tacitly implying that China and Taiwan are already two different sovereign countries because no two countries have the same constitution.
The idea was raised in hope of it replacing the so-called “1992 consensus” that there is “one China, with each side having their own interpretation” — a tacit understanding that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) defines as the Republic of China on Taiwan, while Beijing would define it as the People’s Republic of China.
Having just returned from a orchid exhibition in China held from Oct. 8 through Oct. 13, Su said that while he held a positive view of Hsieh’s visit to China and acknowledged the need for it, he did not support Hsieh’s proposed “constitutions with different interpretations.”
While acknowledging need for increased DPP-China interaction, Su said in a blog post that Hsieh’s proposal had no chance of being accepted by the DPP.
Hsieh’s many proposals — the “one country, two cities (一國兩市)” from 2000, “constitutional one China” (憲法一中) in 2006, “constitutional consensus” (憲法共識) and “constitutions with different interpretations” — are in the simplest of senses only one, the “constitutional China with differing interpretations” (憲法一中各表), Su said.
The logic Hsieh follows in his various proposals is the same — he gradually eliminated “one China” from his proposals because pan-green supporters oppose the concept, Su said.
Couching his proposal as “an explanation of the politics under current circumstances,” then advocating constitutional amendments due to dissatisfaction with those circumstances, Hsieh’s problems — then and now — all boil down to the “one China” framework, Su said.
China might use Hsieh’s influence within Taiwan to achieve several objectives — as a warning to the KMT that it was not the only choice the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had and forcing President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to make more concessions to China to show China that the KMT was a better choice over the DPP, and also to encourage more DPP members to accept Hsieh’s proposal and being more amenable to accepting a “constitutional one China.”
Such a move would not only silence DPP members publicly on renunciation of the “one China” framework, but also isolate the staunch pro-independence members in the party, Su said.
Su said the simple fact of the matter was that China would not accept the concept of “constitutions with differing interpretations,” and such a concept would not have a chance of becoming the DPP’s consensus on China, Su said.
Meanwhile, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that he was interested in meeting Hsieh, adding that aides on either sides have been communicating.
Hsien Min-chieh (謝敏捷), an academic who followed Hsieh during his travels, highly approved of Hsieh’s concept, saying the ROC Constitution — after seven amendments — already exhibited a heavy Taiwanese influence and was “infinitely better” than the KMT’s “1992 consensus.”
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