The legislature’s Procedure Committee yesterday resolved to refer a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposal to declare Chinese official Jiang Ping (江平) persona non grata to a plenary session.
Jiang, who led China’s delegation to the Tokyo Film Festival last month, outraged many with his attack on the Taiwanese delegation at the festival, demanding the delegation’s name be changed from “Taiwan” to either “Chinese Taipei” or “Taiwan, China” before they could attend the Oct. 23 opening ceremony.
The KMT proposal said that -Jiang should be barred from entering the country because his “irrational” actions intentionally sabotaged cross-strait peace developments. The legislature is expected to deliberate over the proposal on Friday and next Tuesday.
If the proposal wins unanimous support, it could result in a resolution calling on the Executive Yuan to bar Jiang.
Jiang and the rest of his delegation partly withdrew from the festival after the organizers refused to comply with his demand, while the Taiwanese delegation insisted on retaining the title “Taiwan.”
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said last week that it would be reasonable to declare Jiang persona non grata. However, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has tried to downplay the incident by saying it was simply a case of Jiang’s personal behavior, while China’s Taiwan Affairs Office attributed it to a lack of communication.
Meanwhile, Wu said yesterday he would defend the nation’s sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) if he meets former Japanese prime ministers Shinzo Abe, who arrived for a visit on Sunday, or Junichiro Koizumi.
“When it comes to the nation’s sovereignty or land, I cannot make any compromise,” Wu said in response to a question from KMT Legislator Chi Kuo-tung (紀國棟) in the legislature.
Asked to comment on the -Diaoyutais on Monday, Abe said every problem between Taiwan and Japan was resolvable because both sides enjoyed a strong friendship.
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