People should vote against President Chen Shui-bian's (
Ruan, a visiting professor at Tamkang University and once a special assistant to former Chinese Communist Party Secretary-General Hu Yaobang (
"The framework proposal is unrealistic and dangerous," said Ruan, saying that the plan has conspicuously failed to deal with Beijing's "one China" principle and "one country, two systems" formula, which he said were two very tricky issues in cross-strait talks.
Answering a question from Kuo Chien-chung (郭建中), a professor at the Graduate Institute of China Studies at Tamkang University, about China's possible reaction to the referendum questions' results, Ruan said the people's approval of the plan would hardly help Taiwan.
China has insisted on Taiwan's acceptance of the "one China" principle as the condition for reopening cross-strait negotiations, "but the framework proposal does not discuss how to handle this condition," Ruan said.
Beijing will bring its sovereignty dispute with Taiwan to any cross-strait talks, Ruan said when criticizing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (
The government here hopes to have exchanges with China based on "equality" -- but while Taipei may desire state-to-state exchanges, Beijing will downgrade them to internal affairs, Ruan said.
Cho, who addressed his rival as "the respectable and admirable Professor Ruan" several times during the debate, lauded Ruan's participation in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally.
Cho said that he has been a loyal reader of articles by Ruan, who became a citizen in 2002 and appeared with Chen and former President Lee Teng-hui (
However, Cho said people should vote "yes" on the second referendum question. If the cross-strait framework plan fails to gain the people's support, Taiwan will face multiple negative consequences, he said.
"Lack of support for the plan would expose how diversified Taiwan's internal opinions about ways to handle cross-strait affairs are," Cho said.
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