Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday described China’s political maneuvers and increasing economic ties with Taiwan as a “silent annexation” and warned of the gradual erosion of Taiwan’s sovereignty.
“The silent annexation is ongoing. The Democratic Progressive Party’s [DPP] loss of power might be tolerable, but the loss of sovereignty in our time would be an irreversible mistake that would jeopardize future generations,” Lu said in a speech during the founding ceremony of the Anti-One China Principle Union.
The group, co-founded by DPP Legislator Mark Chen (陳唐山), Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) and former DPP lawmaker Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮), was established to monitor President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) perceived pro-China policies.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Taiwan does not oppose that there is only one China in the world, Lu said, but “that does not mean Taiwan is part of China.”
The former vice president warned that China has been using different measures to absorb Taiwan since passing an “Anti-Secession” law in 2005.
Ma’s policies since taking office in 2008 appear to have dovetailed with Beijing’s measures and have accelerated Taiwan’s dependence on China, she said.
In response to recent debates about the DPP’s pro-independence stance and a perceived collaborative anti-Taiwan independence campaign between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), leveraged on the so-called “1992 consensus,” Lu reiterated the idea of a “1996 consensus.”
“We should never have a doubt about Taiwan’s independent status. Taiwan has been an independent and sovereign country since March 23, 1996, the day of its first direct presidential election,” Lu said.
The “1996 consensus,” which represents the collective will and decisionmaking of the nation’s 23 million people, is a better consensus than the “1992 consensus,” which is only an illusion fabricated by the KMT and the CCP, Lu said.
Chen also warned that Taiwan “has already entered China’s orbit” under the Ma administration.
As a reminder to his own party, which Chen said has “somehow lost faith in what it believed in,” the lawmaker said the DPP “should know who the enemy is and understand that an enemy will never help you to win power.”
On the desire of several DPP politicians to urgently facilitate closer engagement with Beijing, Chen cited former US president John F. Kennedy as saying: “Do not fear to negotiate, but do not negotiate out of fear.”
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