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PRESIDENT'S RECENT REMARKS HIGHLIGHT TAIWAN'S SOVEREIGNTY: SCHOLAR

Aug 06, 2002 23:13 UTC+0800

Taipei, Aug. 6 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian's recent remarks on cross-Taiwan Strait relations were designed to highlight Taiwan's sovereignty, a scholar commented Tuesday.

Lee Hung-shi, a professor at National Taiwan University Law School, said that the concept that every country should have equal sovereignty, regardless of its strength, population or territory, has become a universal value.

It was based on this concept, he went on, that Chen described Taiwan and mainland China as equal sovereignties on either side of the Taiwan Strait in an address to an executive committee meeting of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party in his capacity as party chairman.

Chen's "equal sovereignty" statement was also an explanation of the "one side, one country" quote in his speech delivered via video link to the 29th annual meeting of the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations held in Tokyo last Saturday, Lee continued.

Chen described the "one side, one country" quote as a simplistic and unclear term for his idea that Taiwan and mainland China are separate countries on either side of the Taiwan Strait and added that the "equal sovereignty" statement is a better way of explaining what he meant.

It is inevitable that Chen should openly claim the sovereignty of Taiwan at this moment, because Beijing has only given the cold shoulder to Chen's repeated goodwill overtures to improve cross-strait ties over the past two years since he assumed the presidency, Lee pointed out.

(By Huang Kwang-chun)