President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) would change the cross-strait “status quo” if it takes place under the “one China” framework, rights groups said yesterday.
Representatives of several civil groups, including the Economic Democracy Union, Taiwan Democracy Watch and Taiwan Association for Human Rights, held a joint press conference to condemn tomorrow’s scheduled meeting.
“The ‘status quo’ is that Taiwan does not belong to China, so if the Ma-Xi meeting occurs under the principle of ‘one China,’ it would amount to changing the ‘status quo.’ The Ma-Xi meeting is not just a single event — it is supposed to become an ongoing mechanism [for talks between cross-strait leaders],” Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said.
Photo: Screen grab from the Internet
Ma has diminished the nation’s stature by participating in the meeting as “leader of the Taiwan area,” even though it is to take place in the context of a state visit to Singapore by Xi in his capacity as Chinese president, Lai said.
“Even though they are not to sign a written agreement and Ma has stated that there would not be a joint statement, what they would repeat in their press conferences would still amount to a political agreement, which is damaging to Taiwan’s democracy and sovereignty,” he said, adding that even separate announcements of points of agreement would leave a legally binding precedent.
Taiwanese should not be bound by anything that Ma agrees to, because of the opacity of his agenda and lack of social consensus, Lai said.
“The ‘status quo’ in Taiwan is that only Taiwanese have the right to elect their president and legislators, and only Taiwanese have the right to decide their present and future,” Taiwan Democracy Watch vice president Chiou Wen-tsong (邱文聰) said. “Using the so-called ‘one China with different interpretations’ formula to restrict the future to unification so that we have to self-identify as a ‘regional government’ means changing that status quo.”
The “one China with different interpretations” framework refers to a tacit consensus between China and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — to which Ma belongs — that both agree that there is only “one China,” although each has a different interpretation of what that means.
Chiou said the Singapore meeting or other negotiations with the potential to fundamentally alter the cross-strait “status quo” should be subject to the Legislative Yuan’s approval before being arranged, with any results subject to a two-thirds “super-majority” vote by the legislature followed by a referendum — similar to the procedures required for a constitutional amendment.
Separately, representatives of the Taiwan Society and other pro-independence organizations condemned Ma for committing the nation to meeting with Chinese leaders under the principle of “one China” without a popular mandate.
“As a president who is soon to step down, [Ma] does not have the standing or the right to push Taiwan into a ‘one China’ framework,” Taiwan Society president Winston Yu (余文儀) said.
The meeting is “unwise” because it amounts to “hugging” China at a time when the US, Japan and Southeast Asian nations are aligning to balance Beijing’s efforts to assert sovereignty over the South China Sea, where Taiwan also has claims, Yu said.
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