Taiwan Republic Office director Chilly Chen (陳峻涵) yesterday filed a judicial complaint against former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), accusing him of committing treason in a speech he gave in China.
Members of the Taiwanese independence group held a rally at outside the High Prosecutors’ Office in Taipei, carrying signs that read: “Mainland refers to China, which is a foreign country,” “Taiwan and China are separate, each is its own distinct country” and “Death sentence to Ma for treason.”
Two men during the rally pretended to handcuff and arrest a person wearing a mask depicting Ma for allegedly colluding with an enemy state.
Photo: Chien Li-chung, Taipei Times
Ma on April 2 told a group of students at Hunan University in Changsha, China, that “our country” amended the Republic of China Constitution, and that “our country was divided into two parts — the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area. Both are our Republic of China, both are China.”
He said “it is a clear fact” that the constitution of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), amended in 1982, stipulates that “Taiwan is part of the sacred territory of the People’s Republic of China.”
“It is a big joke, for Ma to claim that Taiwan belongs to China,” Chen said. “During his visit to China, Ma’s words have defiled our national dignity.”
The former president was “conspiring to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty and hand control of our nation’s territories to China,” he added.
Chen cited Article 104 of the Criminal Code, which says that “any person colluding with a foreign state or its agent with intent to subject territory of the Republic of China to such state or other state shall be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.”
“Taiwan and the PRC are two separate countries, each has its own government, citizens, territory and sovereign rights,” Chen said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers also criticized Ma separately yesterday.
“Ma deliberately claimed that Taiwan belongs to China. He has betrayed all the people who voted for him, and he has sold out ... Taiwan’s children and all future generations... What he has done is quite shameful,” DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said.
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