Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday urged Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to clarify her recent statement that maintaining the “status quo” forms the basis of the party’s cross-strait policy.
“I basically support Tsai’s idea, but what does maintaining the ‘status quo’ mean? I believe the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the DPP have very different definitions of the phrase, which is why I hope Tsai can provide an explanation, then we can support her,” Lu told a press conference in Taipei yesterday morning to talk about peace in the nation and next year’s presidential election.
“If Tsai’s definition of the ‘status quo’ is different from that of the people, then there will be problem,” Lu said.
Tsai, who formally declared her candidacy for next year’s presidential race on Wednesday, made the remarks at a meeting of the DPP’s China Affairs Committee on April 9.
“Maintaining the ‘status quo’ is to maintain cross-strait peace and stable development of cross-strait relations,” Tsai said at the time.
“This is the core of cross-strait relations and the goal the DPP will strive to achieve after regaining power,” Tsai said.
Lu said her interpretation of the “status quo” was “leaning toward the US, being friendly to Japan and extending a peaceful hand to China.”
“Unless Tsai crystallizes her idea and steers Taiwan in the direction of peace and neutrality, all talks of maintaining the status quo will only sound the same, but have vastly different meanings,” she said.
Turning to a recent proposal tabled by DPP member and former Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Hung Chi-chang (洪奇昌) that the party should drop its pursuit of de jure independence if it returns to power next year, Lu said that since there are people who still do not recognize Taiwan’s de jure independence, Taiwan should not give up pursuing independence.
“I urge party members to carefully read the 1991 Taiwan Independence Clause (台獨黨綱), the 1999 Resolution on Taiwan’s Future (台灣前途決議文) and the 2007 Resolution for a Normal State (正常國家決議文),” Lu said.
Lu said the Resolution for a Normal State revolves around the idea that Taiwan is a sovereign and independent state, but faces some “abnormal phenomena” in the fields of international relations, political party relations, constitutional system and cross-strait relations among others.
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