Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday criticized President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) over their criticisms of her.
Ma during a news conference on Friday about his recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) accused the DPP legislative caucus of dodging its responsibility to keep the executive branch checked since it objected the KMT motion to invite Ma to brief the legislature about his meeting with Xi.
“The key point is that the Ma-Xi meeting was completely opaque before it happened. The people did not know what they would be talking about and how they would talk about it. Even the legislative speaker said he did not know the details,” Tsai said when responding to media queries at a campaign event in Keelung. “For such reasons, the people now distrust the KMT government, and the fundamental cause of this is that there is not an established procedure for it.”
Tsai said there is not an established mechanism on what a president should do before meeting with their Chinese counterpart, and the president did not respect the public’s and the legislature’s right to know.
It would not be a successful meeting if a national leader meets with their counterpart without the trust and support of their own people, Tsai said, adding that it is perhaps time for everyone to sit down and talk about how to create a procedure for such meetings.
Tsai also rebutted Ma’s statement that she also once supported the so-called “1992 consensus” — an agreement that the KMT claims was reached in 1992 that both sides of the Taiwan Strait recognize that there is only “one China,” but with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Although Ma, the KMT and the China all insist the “1992 consensus” is the basis for cross-strait exchanges, former Mainland Affairs Council minister Su Chi (蘇起) admitted he had made up the term in 2000.
“President Ma not only fails to clarify his own stance, but also twists the stance of others,” Tsai said. “The responsibility of a national leader is to defend its people’s right to decide the nation’s future, and should allow as many options as possible for the people.”
Instead, what Ma has been doing is limiting the people’s options, Tsai said.
Tsai also condemned Chu, who is currently in the US, for launching an attack on the opposition party, instead of working to expand the nation’s international space.
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