Sun, Jan 05, 2020 page3

• DPP responds to spokeswoman’s ‘treason’ statement

  CORE VALUES: The DPP said it had fought to have a country free of fear, and that no party, including itself, could make decisions on behalf of the nation’s 23 million people

  • By Chen Yu-fu and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday reiterated its stance on protecting the nation’s democracy as it responded to the resignation of a campaign spokeswoman over a controversial remark about unification with China.

  President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) former re-election campaign spokeswoman, Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀), resigned on Friday after she came under fire for saying in an interview with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle on Thursday that, in terms of national sovereignty, proposing unification with a hostile power such as China constitutes “treason.”

  The remarks were seen as highly controversial, coming just days after the DPP rammed an anti-infiltration law through the Legislature on Dec. 31 that criminalizes political activities backed by hostile foreign forces such as China.

  

  The Democratic Progressive Party’s logo is displayed at the party’s headquarters in Taipei in an undated photograph.

  Photo: Su Fun-her, Taipei Times

  Lin said in the interview that China had threatened Taiwan with use of military force, and that legislation passed last year meant there would be consequences for retired military officers who participated in political events in China.

  The protection of Taiwan’s democratic systems and its way of life, and the rejection of any scenario in which the Republic of China would cease to exist, such as China’s “one country, two systems” formula, were matters of consensus among the nation’s 23 million people, the DPP said yesterday.

  The DPP has walked hand-in-hand with Taiwanese for 30 years, fighting for political transformation, freedom from the one-party, authoritarian regime of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and the establishment of a country free of fear, the DPP said.

  Having become a mature democracy where freedom of speech is protected by law, Taiwan would not return to a period of “white terror,” it said.

  The DPP’s passage last year of the Resolution on a Shared Journey With Society (社會同行世代共贏決議文) was in the spirit of the party’s 1999 Resolution on Taiwan’s Future (台灣前途決議文), and reiterated its stance on national reform and the nation’s self-determination, it said.

  No party, including the DPP, could make decisions on behalf of the public, it said.

  Separately, Tsai said on Facebook that democracy has always been the party’s core value, and that it had never viewed differing political views as treasonous.

  “Let me clearly state that our nation’s name is the Republic of China, and the sovereignty of that nation is in the hands of its 23 million people. Therefore, there is no issue involving the renaming of the country,” Tsai said.

  Her most important responsibility as president is the defense of the nation’s sovereignty, freedoms and democratic way of life, she said.

  Additional reporting by CNA
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