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PRESIDENT'S UNIFICATION COUNCIL STATEMENT NOT IMPROVISED

ROC Central News Agency

2006-02-06 22:48:14

    Taipei, Feb. 6 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian was not making offhand remarks when he said on lunar New Year's Day that he was seriously considering dissolving the National Unification Council and its guidelines, a senior official said Monday.

    Tan Sun Chen, secretary-general of the Presidential Office, said he heard the president speak of the idea twice before it was made public -- once when he was foreign minister and then when Chen Shui-bian asked him to be his chief aide at the Presidential Office.

    Tan Sun Chen made the remarks during a regular meeting of government and ruling party officials at the Presidential Office, according to participants.

    They reached a consensus on "speaking in one voice" about the president's statement, which has caused some controversy at home and in the United States, whose officials were reportedly displeased over it.

    The participants said they felt that Chen's proposal was "not as serious as the U.S. imagined, " and that Taiwan should do its best to "communicate with the U.S." to solicit its full understanding of the matter.

    Most of the participants agreed that the president's proposal to abolish the National Unification Council (NUC) and Guidelines would not come as a surprise to members of the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

    Chen Shui-bian made the gesture at this time mainly in order to stop what he perceived as Taiwan's ongoing tilt toward China, the participants said, adding that most DPP members would agree with Chen's proposal. "Even if it was not aimed at moving toward Taiwan's independence, at least it was aimed at slowing the pace of tilting toward unification with China," said the participants.

    Some National Security Council delegates to the meeting pointed out that the NUC and its guidelines were set up when the Kuomintang was in power, a move that amounted to predetermining a stance on developing relations across the Taiwan Strait. "Therefore, we should explain to people the background of the NUC's establishment," the NSC delegates were quoted.

    The DPP has already decided to hold a "grand debate" on the topic next month. Some participants in Monday's meeting suggested the debate be expanded so that voices from all sectors of society could be heard, and that the event may help forge a national consensus on the issue.

    A participant told CNA that the president does not have a concrete timetable for abolishing the NUC and its guidelines, and suggested that chances were good of winning U.S. understanding because the impact of Chen's words wasn't as severe as when former president Lee Teng-hui described Taiwan and China as having "special state-to-state" relations.

    The meeting's participants included Minister Without Portfolio Lin Hsi-yao, Government Information Office chief Cheng Wen-tsan, DPP Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung, DPP Culture and Information Director Tsai Huang-liang and leaders of the DPP's legislative caucus.

(By S.C. Chang)

ENDITEM/diG