Thu, Jul 02, 2015 page1

• TSU, DPP see Hung driving some KMT lawmakers out

  • By Chang Hsiao-ti / Staff reporter
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  Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential hopeful Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) “one China, same interpretation” proposal has led to “KMT lawmakers jumping the boat en masse” because the way she has framed cross-strait relations goes against public opinion, several opposition lawmakers said yesterday.

  “It is not the mainstream view within the KMT either,” they said.

  The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said that KMT Legislator Chang Chia-chun (張嘉郡), who has said she is considering quitting the party, is not the only one who knows that it is not in their interests to sink with the KMT.

  

  Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu yesterday speaks to reporters while attending an audio book donation event at the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) headquarters in Taipei. She said that she had promised to improve her communication with KMT legislators.

  Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

  Hung has proposed replacing the so-called “1992 consensus” with “one China, same interpretation.”

  The consensus refers to a tacit understanding the KMT said was reached with Beijing that both sides agree there is only “one China,” with each side having its own interpretations of what “China” means. Former KMT lawmaker Su Chi (蘇起) said in 2006 that he had made up the term in 2000, when he was head of the Mainland Affairs Council.

  Although Hung has repeatedly emphasized that she would press China to recognize the existence of the Republic of China — something she said the “1992 consensus” has failed to achieve — some KMT members are uneasy about her policy.

  TSU Legislator Lai Cheng-chang (賴振昌) said that if Hung is the KMT candidate, there could be a repetition of the DPP victory in the 2000 presidential election when former Taiwan provincial government James Soong (宋楚瑜) ran as an independent against then-vice president Lien Chan (連戰), the KMT candidate, and DPP candidate Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

  Since Chang’s family has been a leading force of one of the KMT’s factions in Yunlin County, her plan to leave the party could be a sign that the KMT’s mobilization network is breaking apart, Lai said.

  However, some DPP lawmakers appear more cautious about January’s presidential election.

  “It is natural that Chang is considering leaving the KMT because she has seen the KMT’s crisis looming,” DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-tsang (蔡其昌) said. “It is not a single case, but the beginning of a wave of people quitting the KMT.”

  However, just because there is turmoil in the KMT does not mean that the DPP should be optimistic about winning the presidential election because the KMT’s assets and its power over administrative resources give it advantages over the DPP, Tsai said.

  DPP Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) said that Chang would face an easier race if she runs as an independent candidate, rather than on the KMT ticket in January’s legislative elections.

  “Hung is a stranger to people in central and southern Taiwan,” Chiu said.

  “Moreover, on cross-strait policy, it is inconceivable that voters would find her ‘one China, same interpretation’ proposal acceptable because they do not even accept ‘one China, respective interpretations,’” he said.

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