By Mo Yan-chih and Chris Wang / Staff Reporters
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday traded barbs over DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) proposed “Taiwan consensus,” with the DPP saying it would provide a strong foundation for cross-strait talks, while the KMT dismissed the idea as “mere rhetoric.”
Tsai, the DPP’s presidential candidate, during the first leg of her current US visit on Wednesday, renewed her commitment to seek a consensus among Taiwanese through a democratic process, which would be used as the basis for negotiations with China.
Accusing the KMT administration of fabricating the so-called “1992 consensus,” which she said was too fragile to serve as a foundation for China and Taiwan to build a long-term relationship, Tsai said that after a “Taiwan consensus” was formed via a democratic mechanism, a legal foundation could be built via legislation.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), seeking re-election, yesterday challenged Tsai to define the meaning of “Taiwan consensus.”
“We should at least know what it is before discussing the possibility of legalization. So far, no one knows the context of [Taiwan consensus], and I am afraid that we need to wait for an explanation before we know whether it can be legislated,” Ma said.
King Pu-tsung (金溥聰), executive director of Ma’s re-election campaign office, joined Ma in criticizing Tsai’s cross-strait platform, challenging Tsai to elaborate on how such a consensus could be formulated through a democratic process.
King, currently in the US to seek support for Ma from US-based Taiwanese voters, described Tsai’s idea of a “Taiwan consensus” as “mere rhetoric,” and said that on cross-strait relations, the public consensus is to maintain the ‘status quo,’ which is Ma’s “three-noes policy: no unification, no independence and no use of force.”
“Tsai and the DPP has been obsessed with the ‘1992 consensus’ issue, and ignored our achievements in cross-strait developments over the past years. Tsai’s ‘Taiwan consensus’ lacks solid content and political implications. It’s nothing but slogan-like rhetoric,” King said.
In response, Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), the DPP’s vice presidential candidate and secretary-general, yesterday said in Taipei that transparency, democratic procedure and stability were the most important factors in the “Taiwan consensus,” which aims to facilitate a virtuous cycle for cross-strait engagement, so that cross-strait relations would be stable and consistent regardless of which political party wins the election.
A “Taiwan consensus” means that any change in Taiwan’s status should be determined by the people of Taiwan through a democratic procedure, Tsai campaign spokesperson Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said.
“Ma is not qualified to be the head of state of a democracy when he tries to strip Taiwanese of their rights to determine their own future in favor of one-party rule,” Hsu said.
Hsu said that various public opinion polls showed that more than 70 percent of Taiwanese agree that “Taiwan is the Republic of China (ROC) and the ROC is Taiwan” and that Taiwan is a sovereign country and that they opposed engaging with China under the “one China” principle. Only slightly more than 10 percent of people agree with Ma’s argument of “one China equals the ROC,” she said.
Additional reporting by CNA