Independence advocates yesterday launched the Taiwan New Constitution Alliance to promote drafting a new, localized constitution.
“This is a historic moment for Taiwan. Drafting a new constitution is the most important task Taiwanese face,” veteran independence advocate Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) said at the inaugural event in Taipei.
“Although the Democratic Progressive Party is in power, its authority is based on the Republic of China [ROC] Constitution, which has no connection to Taiwan,” said the 95-year-old Koo, a former presidential adviser.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
“The historic task of drafting a new constitution depends on efforts by all Taiwanese,” Koo said. “A constitution for a sovereign, independent Taiwan is not just for the benefit of those of us alive today, but also for that of our children and grandchildren.”
“The ROC Constitution was drafted in and for China, by representatives of the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT],” said Lee Hung-hsi (李鴻禧), constitutional expert and law professor at National Taiwan University, adding that a new constitution for Taiwan should have been drafted much earlier.
Representatives of the Taiwan New Constitution Foundation, which is chaired by Koo, read out a proclamation on the need for a new constitution, saying: “When provisions in the ROC Constitution are in conflict with the wishes of Taiwanese and their pursuit of happiness, people have the right to a new constitution.”
The ROC Constitution was ratified during a National Constituent Assembly meeting in Nanjing, China, in 1946, they said.
“Taiwanese were not involved in the process of drafting or ratifying it, and were never asked for consent,” they said. “It was imposed on Taiwan, but later was suspended as the KMT placed the nation under martial law.”
“In the decades before Taiwan’s democratization started in the 1990s, Taiwanese were not granted the rights stipulated in the Constitution, such as the freedoms of expression, assembly and the press,” they said.
“Taiwanese only had a minimal say at the local level, while Mainlanders held all relevant positions in the central government, including as lawmakers who were not elected by the public,” they added.
“The ROC Constitution is dead and exists in name only. As the constitution of China, it has been superseded by the People’s Republic of China constitution,” they said.
A new constitution would omit the obsolete provisions in place and better represent the reality of two separate entities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, they said.
“A new constitution would do away with the myth of a unification with China,” they said. “It would be an expression of the Taiwanese public’s will for self-determination and safeguard their dignity.”
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS