Senior Taiwan independence advocate Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) yesterday unveiled his proposal for a “nations of brotherhood” (兄弟之邦) framework to solve cross-strait relations and establish peace and stability.
The 87-year-old former presidential adviser explained his initiative with a full-page advertisement in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) yesterday.
The initiative is the first concrete proposal to emerge since former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) submitted his “constitutions with different interpretations” (憲法各表) proposal during his landmark visit to China earlier this month.
Koo said he came up with his initiative about seven years ago after drawing inspiration from a poem by Chinese poet Cao Zhi (曹植) and has been playing with the idea ever since.
However, he did not try to establish a framework to deal with cross-strait interaction until recently.
Koo’s initiative is based on the spirit of brotherhood, in which Taiwan and China, as brothers, help each other.
China could claim the title of the “big brother” due to its rising power.
If Beijing accepted the framework by recognizing Taiwan as a country and helping Taiwan secure UN membership, Koo proposed that Taiwan could “return four favors” to China by not joining anti-China alliances or organizations, abstaining from UN voting if it went against China’s policy, offering China US$50 billion in financial aid for its inland development and returning all antique collections at the National Palace Museum to China.
In terms of a cross-strait framework, the initiative could be Taiwan’s bottom line of negotiation, rather than Beijing’s bottom line of “one country, two systems,” Koo said.
The initiative would be more “practical” than Ma’s mantra of “no unification, no independence and no use of force,” which he described as meaningless.
“Most Taiwanese agree that Taiwan is an independent country and less than 10 percent support unification,” he said.
“Taiwan is not capable of declaring war against China,” he added.
Koo believes the concept would be easy for the international community to understand and accept because it would promote relations similar to those between the UK, the US and Canada or the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
China would also find it difficult to reject the proposal because it “needs cross-strait peace more than Taiwan does” and even if it took Taiwan by force, it would not be able to manage the widespread anti-China sentiment.
However, Koo acknowledged that it is just a proposal at present and he has not discussed it with the DPP, which is still looking to come up with a party consensus on China policy after suffering defeat in January’s presidential election.
Koo hopes that his proposal, like Hsieh’s, would catalyze the DPP’s brainstorming and encourage people to be more creative with proposals for the future of cross-strait development.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard