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'TAIWANESE MINDSET' BY NO MEANS 'TAIWAN INDEPENDENCE': PFP HEAD

Central News Agency

2005-05-11 17:07:22

    Beijing, May 11 (CNA) Opposition People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong said Wednesday that a "Taiwanese mindset" does not equal "Taiwan independence" and that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should try harder to understand each other to create the greatest benefit for both sides.

    During his speech at Beijing's elite Tsinghua University, Soong noted that the "Taiwan consciousness" -- with origins that he said could be traced back to the Ming dynasty of 500 years ago -- is the product of an immigrant expatriate society where societal members came from China that has been strongly influenced by politics.

    Today's "Taiwanese consciousness" -- tempered with 400 years of distant memories about Chinese ancestors, 100 years of division across the Taiwan Strait and 50 years of opposition -- is a highly self-protective mindset reflecting the Taiwanese people's fears that their hard-earned achievements may go down the drain if the cross-strait status quo is changed, according to Soong.

    Soong urged his audience not to equate "Taiwanese consciousness" with "Taiwan independence, " saying that "Taiwanese consciousness" is a reality trained and disciplined over hundreds years of cross-strait history where the people identify themselves as part of the Taiwanese land but believe that they are Chinese also.

    Taiwan independence, however, is an ideology held by some people who insist on separating Taiwan from China clearly and completely, Soong said, adding that the "Taiwanese consciousness" has been manipulated by some pro-independence politicians, which he claimed has blurred the "genuine mindset of the majority of the Taiwan people."

    Soong called for people on either side of the strait to gain a better understanding of each other, saying that only a mutually understood and mutually forgiven people can reconcile and eventually seek co-existence and co-prosperity.

    Soong said he believes the Chinese authorities are shrewd enough to make a wise choice between "containment" or "a policy of persuasion" in terms of China's relations with Taiwan.

    Quoting a Taiwanese dialect idiom saying that "one who eats too quickly smashes his bowl, " Soong urged the Beijing authorities to face the historical reality and exercise patience in their engagements with Taiwan.

    Soong said that only when leaderships on either side of the strait make the people's wellbeing a priority can both sides work out effective solutions to the thorny cross-strait issues.

    Emulating the ancient proverb "actions speak louder than words" -- the university's motto -- Soong told his audience: "Ask me not what I am saying here in Beijing. Ask only what we are doing in Taiwan."

    Soong claimed that Taiwan independence is a "blind alley" that will lead the Taiwan people nowhere, and said he will continue to push for the Taiwan legislature's enactment of a cross-strait peace acceleration law.

    He said that the PFP and its ally, the Kuomintang (KMT) , will jointly see to it that the so-called "1992 consensus" on separate definitions of "one China" and the "five noes" principle be integrated into the proposed cross-strait peace law to make them the core spirit of the law.

    The "five noes, " vowed by President Chen Shui-bian in his 2000 inauguration speech, are: no declaration of independence, no change to the Republic of China's national title, no inclusion of the "state-to-state relationship" description of cross-strait ties in the Constitution, no referendum on the unification versus independence question, and no abolishment of the National Reunification Council so long as Beijing does not attack Taiwan.

    In his speech, which he described as an effort to bridge differences across the Taiwan Strait, Soong also said that poverty is the common enemy of the people on both sides.

    Quoting the U.S. magazine Newsweek as reporting recently that the "Chinese Century" is approaching, as China has allowed some 300 million Chinese to be lifted out of poverty, Soong said that creating an equally rich society should be the common goal for both sides of the strait.

    Soong, who unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in 2000 and for the vice presidency in 2004, flew from Hunan Province to Beijing Tuesday on the fifth and most important leg of his nine-day "bridge-building" visit to China.

    He is scheduled to hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, who serves concurrently as general secretary of the Communist Party of China, in Beijing Thursday before returning to Taiwan Friday.

    Soong is the second opposition leader to visit China in a week. His visit came on the heels of KMT Chairman Lien Chan's landmark visit April 26-May 3. China gave both Lien and Soong a red-carpet welcome -- part of its efforts to contain Taiwan's popularly elected leader -- President Chen Shui-bian, whose party leans toward formal independence for Taiwan.

(By Fang Hsu and Deborah Kuo)

ENDITEM/J