Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members sparred over the nation’s status ahead of the party’s national congress today, with some calling on President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) stance of maintaining the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait to be entered into the party’s charter, while others said the name Republic of China (ROC) should be abolished.
The national congress agenda showed that party representatives’ proposals are to be among topics for discussion.
A proposal by DPP representative Hsiao Chieh (蕭杰) and three other representatives said that the DPP Central Executive Committee should be authorized to amend the charter to include Tsai’s stance on maintaining the “status quo.”
Maintaining the “status quo” should replace Article 1 of the DPP charter passed in 1991, which states that it is the party’s objective to establish a sovereign and independent Republic of Taiwan, as well as the 1999 Resolution on Taiwan’s Future and the 2007 Normal Country Resolution, the proposal said.
By doing so, it would help “meet the needs of changing times,” consolidate consensuses regarding Taiwan and maintain the “image of peace and stability” across the Taiwan Strait, it said.
The proposal drew opposition from DPP Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇), who said: “Do not fantasize that certain people in China will be pleased just because the party’s constitution changed.”
DPP representative Lee Chi-wei (李啟維) proposed the abolishment of the ROC to promote transitional justice.
DPP Tainan Chapter chief executive Yan Chun-tso (顏純左) said that as the DPP’s governance would have a profound effect on Taiwan, it is only natural that people would voiced differing opinions.
No matter the opinion a party representative holds, conclusions reached during the national congress should be respected, Yan said.
DPP representative Wu Tseng-yun (吳增允) proposed that the DPP headquarters place more importance on the expectations of people in the outlying counties of Kinmen and Matsu.
This would help the DPP fulfill its campaign promises to Kinmen and Matsu residents that it would increase emphasis on developing the two municipalities by allocating more resources, Wu said.
A proposal by DPP representative Cheng Chen-feng (鄭振豐) said that the party should improve efforts aimed at transitional justice by compensating former ROC Army First Special Forces conscripts who spent a year more in compulsory military service than others.
Sources within the DPP said that the proposals are likely to be discussed today before being forwarded to the DPP Central Executive Committee or other units, which would then propose solutions.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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