China’s Taiwan Affairs Office’s (TAO) comment that “Taiwan is a part of China’s territory and is under Chinese jurisdiction” is absurd, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Tuesday.
TAO spokesperson Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Tuesday made the remark about President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Saturday last week, which she said was “Taiwanese independence fallacy.”
At a Double Ten National Day gala in Taipei, Lai said that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) could not be the “motherland” of the people of the Republic of China (ROC), as the ROC is older and for people aged 75 or older in China, the ROC might be their homeland.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
There is no question regarding ROC sovereignty, as it is firmly rooted in Taiwan and Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang (Mastu) counties, Lai said.
Zhu said that Lai’s speech showed his “obstinate stance on Taiwanese independence and his sinister intentions of escalating hostility and confrontation,” as he continues to promote a “new two-state theory” that the ROC and PRC are not subordinate to each other.
“The TAO’s comments only made it clear to Taiwanese that Beijing sees itself as the only legitimate government of China and would not allow the ROC to coexist simultaneously,” the MAC said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) yesterday said that most Taiwanese support the president’s comments.
The TAO has nothing new to say, and its comments only represent the continued oppression of Taiwan, she said.
The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) also criticized the TAO comments, saying that as the ROC has retained sovereignty over Taiwan since 1945, the nation’s future would be decided by its 23 million citizens.
It added that cross-strait relations and interactions should be based on the “five mutuals” proposed by TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) last year: mutual knowledge, mutual understanding, mutual respect, mutual cooperation and mutual accommodation.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said during a meeting of the party’s Central Standing Committee that Taiwanese are citizens of the ROC.
They are also Taiwanese, but should not forget their ancestral origins, he said, referring to the practice of some Taiwanese whose ancestors came from China citing the province or region they were from.
That Taiwanese can be so open with their ancestral origins highlights the ROC’s inclusiveness, progressiveness and democratic government, he added.
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