Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DPP PASSES 'PROTECT TAIWAN' DECLARATION

ROC Central News Agency

2005-03-12 22:33:44

    Taipei, March 12 (CNA) The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) passed a declaration at a provisional party congress Saturday, reaffirming its commitment to promoting sweeping reform and protecting Taiwan's sovereign status in the face of Beijing's proposed "anti-secession" legislation.

    The declaration, titled "Insist on Reform, Protect Taiwan, " slammed Beijing's so-called "anti-secession" law as a piece of legislation aimed at using force or non-peaceful means to alter the present status quo across the Taiwan Strait and sabotage peace in the region.

    The proposed law is in violation of the international law and detrimental to stability and security in the Asia-Pacific region, the DPP declaration said.

    Stressing that Taiwan is an independent sovereign state, the declaration said Taiwan's sovereignty belongs to its 23 million residents and that only the people of Taiwan have a final say on any change to its future.

    With an aim to defend the 23 million Taiwan people's rights to determine their own destiny, the declaration said, the DPP will join hands with other domestic political parties and social groups to organize a mass rally March 26 to make known to the world Taiwan people's resolve to defend Taiwan with freedom, democracy and peace.

    The declaration also urged the international community to adopt effective common actions to prevent the Beijing government from enacting the so-called "anti-secession" legislation which it said would wreck cross-strait peace and Asia-Pacific stability.

    As Taiwan's ruling party, the declaration added, the DPP will staunch protect the 23 million Taiwan people's freedom and right to determine their own destiny.

    The declaration also reaffirmed the DPP's support for a constitutional amendments package passed by the Legislative Yuan last August, which will pave the way for Taiwan's constitutional re-engineering project.

    The declaration said the DPP will win as many National Assembly seats as possible to facilitate the passage of the constitutional amendments package by the mission-oriented National Assembly to be elected May 14.

    The DPP provisional party congress was aimed at discussing nomination rules for selecting its candidates for the May 14 National Assembly elections. A total of 300 seats will be up for grabs and the DPP has decided to nominate 150 candidates.

(By Sofia Wu)

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