Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday defended his statement that Taiwanese should not oppose unification, which he said is established by the Constitution.
Ma made the remark during a speech on cross-strait relations at Soochow University’s Chengzhong Campus in Taipei after a participant asked why Ma changed his “three noes” policy that underpinned cross-strait interactions during his eight-year presidency.
The “three noes” refers to Ma’s slogan of “no unification, no independence and no use of force.”
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
He on Nov. 7 revised his stance to “no opposition to unification” in a speech marking the third anniversary of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
“Unification is a goal stipulated in our Constitution, but there is no timetable,” Ma said, adding that the process must be democratic and peaceful.
Ma said that he proposed the idea of “no opposition to unification,” because this was something that might happen, depending on the conditions and timing, and that he wanted to bring the issue to the attention of Taiwanese so that they could decide their own fate amid fluctuating cross-strait ties.
Regarding the so-called “1992 consensus,” Ma said that it is akin to a contract that has served as a political foundation for cross-strait ties.
“If you want to change it, it will need the consent of the other party. Otherwise it could jeopardize mutual trust across the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
Ma said the “consensus” was not fabricated by former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起), but rather proposed by the Straits Exchange Foundation under the guidance of then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in November 1992 and accepted by the Chinese Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits.
The “1992 consensus” — a term Su in 2006 admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Beijing that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Beijing has never publicly endorsed the existence of the “different interpretations” element.
Ma also questioned President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) policy of maintaining the cross-strait “status quo,” which Tsai said would remain unchanged, despite the Democratic Progressive Party’s losses in the Nov. 24 elections.
“Which ‘status quo’ is she referring to? The one under my administration or that under the administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁)?” Ma asked, adding that Chen’s lacked the “1992 consensus.”
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS