Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said he disagreed that the party’s recently concluded review of its China policy was unimpressive and conservative and called on Beijing to win over Taiwanese with encouragement and “observation from a distance.”
Addressing the DPP’s China policy review for the first time since it was announced on Thursday, Su yesterday reaffirmed that the party considers Taiwan to be a sovereign and independent country during an interview with Radio Taiwan International, a state-funded station, which has a mainly Chinese audience.
The policy review concluded that the resolution on Taiwan’s future in 1999 — which defined Taiwan as a sovereign country while acknowledging the Republic of China as the nation’s formal title — has been accepted by the majority of the public and would remain the DPP’s core value and position.
While observers described the review as a “cliche [and] without new ideas” and some party members proposed freezing the Taiwan independence clause to allow the party to better engage with China, the chairman insisted that the DPP’s China policy was the right path.
In the DPP’s historical process, the Taiwan independence clause is “a chapter in the past” as the nation “is already a sovereign and independent... There is no need to freeze or abolish anything,” he said.
“If you are a man, you do not have to tell people that you are a man every day,” Su said as a way of explaining his view. “Is it strange to negate what you did when you were 13 or 20 years old?”
Cross-strait relations have become important and complex, so it would be fantasy to approach the relationship with a simple term, such as the so-called “1992 consensus,” he said in response to questions over whether the DPP would come up with an innovative term to beat out the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and facilitate better ties with Beijing.
Su said the relationship should be like “a seagull on the beach.”
“A man on a beach should learn how to watch a seagull and appreciate its beauty from a distance. If he tried to catch it, it would fly away,” Su said, adding that China should not stand in Taiwan’s way if it was serious about winning over Taiwanese hearts.
If China refrained from oppressing the nation’s international space and respected it in bilateral engagements, this would create a “China plus one” situation, meaning that both sides could coexist in the international community, Su said.
The senior politician said Beijing should be wary of “hearing only those things it wants to hear” and setting preconditions over any bilateral engagements.
Looking back at the party’s loss in the presidential election in 2012, Su said that while a sincere and complete review was necessary, he suspected that the DPP’s China policy was not the most important factor in the loss.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS