The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) discussion of its Taiwan independence policy again ended without a consensus yesterday, but participants agreed that the party should engage Beijing and establish an inter-party “constitutional consensus,” before forging closer ties with China.
“Participants agreed that cross-strait exchanges should not be monopolized by any party and the DPP should engage China with confidence. The party needs to fine-tune its policy to win the support of more voters and to resolve the ‘imbalance’ phenomenon,” said former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), convener of an enlarged meeting of the DPP’s China Affairs Committee (CAC).
“The third consensus [of the meeting] was that the DPP should promote constitutionalism in Taiwan and make constitutional consensus [between political parties] the foundation of cross-strait dialogue,” he added.
Photo: CNA
Hsieh denied that the issue of eliminating the party’s Taiwan independence chapter, which has existed since 1991, was discussed at the meeting. However, participants mentioned the formulation of a new resolution, which supposedly would “replace” the previous resolution.
The DPP’s position on Taiwan’s national status has been largely defined by its party charter, which mentions the establishment of the Republic of Taiwan, and its resolution on Taiwan’s future of 1999, which defines Taiwan as a sovereign country separate from China, while acknowledging the Republic of China (ROC) as the nation’s formal title.
However, several DPP members argued that the position is why Beijing has refused to engage in dialogue with the party and that the policy would have to be adjusted so that people would have confidence in the DPP’s ability to manage cross-strait relations.
Tung Cheng-yuan (童振源), a professor at National Chengchi University who previously served as deputy minister of the Mainland Affairs Council, proposed that the party enact an “ROC resolution” which pledges that it would no longer attempt to change the nation’s formal title and establish a Republic of Taiwan.
The fundamental problem does not lie in the Taiwan independence policy, but in the party’s resolution on normalization of the country in 2007, which denounced the legality of the ROC government, former DPP chairman Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良) said after the meeting.
Several participants did mention the formulation of a new resolution for the DPP to better manage future cross-strait relations at the meeting, Hsu said.
“I don’t think the elimination of a past resolution would be meaningful. The problem is whether you can come up with a new resolution as the party’s guidance for the future,” Hsu said.
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
RSS