The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) six chairperson candidates on Wednesday crossed swords over the party’s direction on cross-strait ties during a live CtiTV debate ahead of the election on May 20.
KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and former KMT vice chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢) said the party should push for a peace agreement with China, while KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) demurred by saying such an agreement would not be realistic.
Former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) expressed support for former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) framework for ties: the so-called “1992 consensus” of “one China, different interpretations” and the “three noes” — no discussion of unification, no pursuit of de jure independence and no use of force.
Photo: CNA
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted to making up the term in 2000.
The candidates’ remarks were in response to the debate moderator’s question on how they would respond if the Chinese government decided to accommodate the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in a new diplomatic framework.
Hung said there is no chance the DPP administration would compromise with the CCP.
In the event the DPP and CCP reach an accommodation, Hung said that in September last year she ordered that “peace under the framework of the Republic of China [ROC] Constitution” be placed on the party’s platform, which could counter the DPP’s pro-independence platform.
Only the KMT can end hostilities across the Taiwan Strait and initiate a peaceful relationship with China, she said.
Hau, a former Taipei mayor, said that the KMT needs consensus from both within the party and the public to move forward, adding that the party “cannot afford recklessness on cross-strait issues.”
He slammed Hung’s “one China, same interpretation” formula, saying: “How likely is it for [Beijing] to accept the ROC as the ‘one China?’”
“It would be impossible for any cross-strait peace agreement to be signed,” Hau added.
As cross-strait policy is the KMT’s strong suit, the party should not change things without good reason or raise controversial issues related to it, he said.
Chan, a supporter of Hung’s “peace platform” that was passed by the KMT congress in September last year, said Ma’s “one China, different interpretations” framework should not be considered unchangeable.
Cross-strait and international relations are parts of a dynamic equilibrium, and Taiwan must continue to promote peace and stability on that basis, Chan said, adding that pushing for a cross-strait peace agreement “is a worthy goal,” despite short-term difficulties.
Wu said the “1992 consensus” is a commitment to the “one China” principle, which was the foundation of peace and stability during the Ma administration.
The pillar of cross-strait ties is the “three noes” under the framework of the ROC Constitution, he said.
“I believe in peaceful development across the Taiwan Strait and I am opposed to [formal] Taiwanese independence, as well as unification with China, at the current stage,” Wu said. “Only with changed circumstances and in the fullness of time will there be an opportunity for a so-called cross-strait peace agreement.”
Hung responded to criticism of her “one China, same interpretation” formula, saying that it refers to “overlapping sovereignty and mutual recognition of the right to rule [the respective territory], with separate rights of governance without splitting.”
Former Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corp president Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) said the KMT does not have a patent on cross-strait exchanges, adding that he would be happy to see interactions between the DPP and the CCP, because that would mean the DPP has abandoned its pro-independence platform.
Former KMT legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should “bravely acknowledge the ‘1992 consensus’” on May 20.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching