Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Lin I-chin (林宜瑾) yesterday said a petition has been completed for a proposed amendment to change the name of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) to Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Relations Act (台灣與中華人民共和國人民關係條例).
The concept that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to two separate countries is basic international knowledge, she said, adding that the change hoped to clarify through law the equal, nation-to-nation relationship between Taiwan and China.
“This proposed amendment not only highlights our country’s stance against aggression and the internalization of the Taiwan Strait issue, but also serves as an important international statement,” she said. “We want to make it clear to Taiwan’s democratic allies that, although the opposition camps are causing chaos in the legislature, ‘pro-China’ and ‘selling out Taiwan’ is definitely not the mainstream opinion in our country.”
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, Bloomberg
Lin said that in the face of the opposition camps blocking the defense budget, the general budget and proposed amendments related to national security issues, as a legislator from the DPP, she has a stronger duty than ever before to use her legislative powers “to counter aggression, oppose colonialism and prevent the internalization of the Taiwan Strait issue.”
“Taiwan and the PRC are two separate countries, and Taiwan has never been under the rule of the PRC,” she said. “However, some of our laws ignore this reality and continue to regulate the relationship between the two sides based on a one-sided, idealized worldview. The ‘cross-strait relations act’ is one such example.”
In addition to proposing to rename the law, Lin said she also proposed removing the phrase “before national unification” and the use of the term “region” to refer to the two sides “to make the provisions better aligned with the basic facts.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said that as Lin’s intention is to promote the concept of “one country on each side” and “two countries,” there was no need to go through all the trouble of revising the cross-strait relations act.
She should propose to abolish the act entirely, along with the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Wang said.
“DPP lawmakers want to take charge and stir up trouble, but they should not expect the opposition parties in the Legislative Yuan to be their brake pads,” she said.
The MAC said that a lawmaker’s proposal a matter for the legislative authority and that in respect of the Legislative Yuan’s autonomy, the executive branch would not express an opinion.
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua
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