Despite an announcement from Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson and presidential nominee Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) that the party would maintain the “status quo” with China, pro-independence groups yesterday declared their support for her.
“We would have a friendly interpretation of Tsai’s maintaining the ‘status quo,’ and believe that Tsai’s maintenance of the ‘status quo’ is different from President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) maintenance of the ‘status quo,’ which has an ultimate goal of unification with China,” World United Formosans for Independence (WUFI) chairman Chen Nan-tien (陳南天) told a news conference in Taipei.
“Of course, if it turns out that Tsai’s maintenance of the ‘status quo’ is different from how we understand it, we would immediately withdraw the support,” Chen added.
Tsai should at least also refrain from repeating that the Republic of China equals Taiwan, Chen said.
Moreover, he called on the candidate to push for creating a new constitution and giving a new name to the nation once elected.
Former representative to Japan and WUFI founding member Koh Se-kai (許世楷) said that the group has established its “friendly interpretation” because it also believes that, to defend Taiwan’s national interests at the moment, it must try to maintain its status as a de facto independent nation, while moving toward de jure independence.
“We therefore believe that Tsai’s ‘maintaining the status quo’ is in accordance with our definition,” he said.
WUFI vice chairman Chang Pao-yuan (張葆源) said that the pan-green political camp should maintain unity, while also collaborating with rising “third” political forces to win more than 50 percent of the seats in next year’s legislative elections.
“We should realize many reforms only once the pan-blue camp becomes the real minority in the legislature,” Chang said.
Chen Yi-chi (陳奕齊), a member of the Wing of Radical Politics, said that the group would also throw its support behind Tsai, since she is “more willing to have dialogues with civil groups, while the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] has always stood on the opposite side.”
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