Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said yesterday he would submit a proposal to the party’s Central Standing Committee this week asking headquarters to hold a debate on the party’s China policy.
Among the topics to be included in the debate would be whether the party’s rank and file should be allowed to travel to China, whether to loosen restrictions on Taiwanese semiconductor investment in China and whether Taiwanese firms should be able to set up 12-inch wafer fabs in China, he said.
On Friday, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) told Michael Splinter, chairman of the Santa Clara-based Applied Materials, that the government was studying the feasibility of a plan to allow semiconductor manufacturers to move their 12-inch wafer fabs to China.
Following Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu’s (陳菊) visit to China late last month to promote the World Games — which will be held in Kaohsiung from July 16 to July 26 — in her capacity as president of the World Games Kaohsiung Organizing Committee, Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair, another DPP member, has also said he will visit Xiamen, Fujian Province, later this month.
Gao said the majority opinion within the party was that allowing party members to visit China was inevitable and that as a result a set of protocols must be established regulating party members’ trips.
As to when the debate would take place or what format it would take, Gao said the Central Standing Committee would make the decision.
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