By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Activists yesterday demanded that Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) report to the Legislative Yuan on his scheduled meeting with his Chinese counterpart and warned him against initiating any political negotiations that could go beyond “the red line of democracy.”
Representatives from the Cross-Strait Agreement Watch Association and Taiwan Democracy Watch said Wang might engage in political talks or arrangements with Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) when they meet in China after the Lunar New Year holiday.
“Wang should report to the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee about his trip and be questioned by lawmakers before his goes. Legislative monitoring should be enforced at all time,” association spokesperson Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) told a press conference in Taipei.
Such an appearance before lawmakers was neither unreasonable nor unprecedented, as a report to the Legislative Yuan is common practice between the administrative and legislative branches regarding cross-strait engagement, Lai said.
The Straits Exchange Foundation briefed a legislative committee before all four negotiations with the Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits between December 2010 and June last year, Lai said.
The public has yet to reach a consensus on the cross-strait political negotiations, which includes issues such as the “one China” framework, “one country, two areas,” mutual military confidence-building mechanisms and a possible peace agreement, Taiwan Democracy Watch member and Academia Sinica political scientist Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) said.
That was the reason why the public opposed any negotiations, unilateral or joint statements and the signing of any documents, Hsu said.
As the legislature is scheduled to recess next week and its new session would not begin before Feb. 1, the activists urged the Legislative Yuan to either arrange an extra session or convene as early as possible after the Lunar New Year holiday so that Wang will be able to appear before it before he leaves for China.