Monday, February 17, 2014

Taiwan Solidarity Union dismisses Wang’s efforts

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi’s (王郁琦) visit to China last week has hindered cross-strait relations, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) said yesterday.

The outcomes “paled in comparison” with the results of past bilateral engagements, TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said.

Citing events in 1992, 1995 and 1998, Huang said the regression of Taiwan’s status during Wang’s visit was easily seen.

In 1992, Taiwan refused to adopt the so-called “Hong Kong and Macau model,” used with the endorsement of their suzerains, Britain and Portugal respectively, in its accession application to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Huang said.

However, last week Wang succumbed to Beijing’s demand to combine Taiwan’s aspiration to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership with the completion of followup agreements under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, the chairman said in a press release.

Huang said that Wang’s mention of the Republic of China (ROC) in front of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing “was not something to be proud of because somebody did it better.”

Former Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) mentioned the ROC in 1998 talks with then-Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits chairman Wang Daohan (汪道涵), Huang said.

Regarding a potential meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Huang said former Chinese president Jiang Zemin’s (江澤民) 1995 statement that a meeting of leaders from both sides “would not happen in an international setting” meant Wang had not made any progress on that issue either.