Premier Tang Fei (唐飛) said during a recent general interpellation session at the Legislative Yuan that the wording of the Guidelines for National Unification (GNU) contains defects and therefore requires a review. His words have led to speculation that the new government may amend the GNU and prompted the KMT caucus to propose the "codification" of the GNU. Suddenly, the independence-unification debate that had somewhat abated following the presidential election looks set to go off again.
In fact, the GNU is just a set of "functional" policy announcements. When former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) announced the GNU, he wanted to use them on the one hand to pacify the conservative forces and solidify his rule, and on the other hand as a declaration toward China. Of course, the GNU will look anachronistic to a certain extent under the current, different political circumstances.
When former president Lee proposed the GNU, he was very much constrained by the KMT. But ironically, this kind of constraint spared Taiwan the kind of pressure it is facing now over cross-strait issues.
Therefore, implementing the GNU was not an important task under those circumstances. It was just that Lee's "special state-to-state" statement blew away the fuzz covering cross-strait relations. Chen's rise to power generates even more fear and vigilance in Beijing toward Taiwan.
Taiwan can no longer have the space it used to have to maneuver. At this point, the question of whether or not to abide by the GNU cannot be pushed aside through obfuscation, as was the case in the past. This is why the issue is a much knottier one for the new government.
How should the new government respond to these changes while the KMT caucus is pushing for the codification of the GNU?
The new government does not have to worry too much that "all the words may be set in stone" once the legal status of the GNU is established. Even though the GNU somewhat fails to fit into the current political realities, in practical matters the GNU provides a three-phase process as a reference point for upgrading cross-strait exchanges. When it comes to the three direct links, the GNU also sets the precondition that "the two sides eliminate hostilities and resolve disputes in a peaceful manner under the one China principle."
The guidelines also call for mutual respect in the international arena and avoid mutual exclusion in order to facilitate mutual trust and cooperation. These statements tell us the way to break the current impasse.
Since Taiwan's new government came to power, Beijing has consistently used "one China" as an excuse to reject any goodwill gesture from Taiwan.
But what Beijing means by "one China" is the People's Republic of China, which is quite far off from Taiwan's "one China, with each side free to make its own interpretation" and is therefore unacceptable to Taiwan. Also, China has not renounced the use of force against Taiwan.
Therefore, if the GNU are codified under the KMT's lead, the government can then use the opportunity to pose the following question to Beijing: "How can we enter the medium and long-term phases as stipulated in the GNU and start talking unification if you refuse to give up the use of force against Taiwan and continue to obstruct Taiwan's survival in the international community?" Also, even if the GNU are codified, it will only place limited constraints on the new government unless they are also written into the Constitution.
However, the new government must also respond to demands from the populace at the appropriate time. It appears that the timings for convening the cross-strait task force and the National Unification Council do not have to be separated so cleanly, because the two entities are similar in nature and the former will not be abolished any time soon. There is no harm in organizing both at the same time.
As public consensus begins to build for cross-strait policy, it will naturally become clear which is the superior entity among the two.
The row over the codification of the GNU is an indication that we still do not have a unanimous consensus on cross-strait policy. We hope the new government will demonstrate its wisdom on the issue and find a feasible solution to this long-running issue.
Wang To is a DPP legislator.
Translated by Francis Huang.
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