Tue, Nov 21, 2000 page1

• Hsieh maintains stance on `one China' principle

  DEFINING A NATION Although the Constitution does not reflect the DPP's stance on the issue, the chairman of the party says its definition could be interpreted with more flexibility to ease cross-strait tensions

  • By Joyce Huang / STAFF REPORTER
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  Despite a strong backlash from party members, DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday urged the DPP to look to the Constitution's reference to "one China" as a means of breaking through the ideological deadlock on cross-straits affairs and establishing some common ground with opposition parties.

  He said that "one China" is the basis on which the ROC Constitution is founded.

  Speaker of the Legislative Yuan, the KMT's Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), yesterday publicly endorsed Hsieh's view, saying, "If the DPP can acknowledge the `one China' framework, it will help defuse the tension between the ruling party and the opposition parties."

  "A rational discussion based on [the `one China' framework in] the Constitution will further manifest [the fact] that Taiwan is an independent sovereign state, which is advantageous to Taiwan," Hsieh said, when questioned by Kaohsiung City Councilors to clarify the DPP's stance on the "one China" principle yesterday.

  The former KMT government proclaimed in its White Paper, "Relations Across the Taiwan Strait," in 1994 that each side of the Taiwan Strait "has jurisdiction over its respective territory and that they should co-exist as two legal entities."

  In 1999, then president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) declared that relations between Taiwan and China should be defined as "state-to-state" in nature. Beijing's interpretation of "one China" asserts that Taiwan is part of China.

  "The `one China' framework in the Constitution is a statement of the de facto situation, and it has nothing to do with whether I agree or disagree with that framework," Hsieh said.

  Hsieh said that, in the Constitution, it has been made clear that the ROC is an independent sovereign state and that "one China" does not represent the People's Republic of China. He also said, however, that there was room for discussion on the issue of unification. He therefore argued that he was only suggesting a way to reach a domestic consensus on the interpretation of "one China."

  Hsieh's remarks, however, were interpreted as affirming the ROC Constitution, which states that China is a part of its territory -- a statement to which the DPP has long been opposed. Lee Hung-hsi (李鴻禧), an expert on the Constitution and once Hsieh's teacher, responded to Hsieh's remarks on Sunday by saying that the Constitution was out of date and was not in accordance with existing conditions.

  DPP Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) yesterday said that Hsieh was making his comments in a personal capacity, and that they did not represent the DPP's official position.

  Hsieh, in response yesterday, said he agreed with Lee Hung-hsi.

  "Not every article in the Constitution is accepted by all political parties. During the process of discussion, the public will participate in and be better informed about whether the Constitution is practical and should be revised or not," Hsieh said, adding that it was unconstitutional to link "one China" with "one country, two systems."

  Wu, moreover, stressed that the DPP's stance on the "one China" principle conformed with the party's 1999 resolution regarding Taiwan's future (台灣前途決議文), which declared that Taiwan was an independent sovereign state whose name was the Republic of China, and President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) inaugural speech on May 20.

  When asked if the so-called "1992 consensus" existed, Hsieh said that he was not involved in the 1992 cross-strait talks and, therefore, he was not sure. He said, however, that according to the Mainland Affairs Council, there was no such consensus.
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