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ABOLISHING UNIFICATION GUIDELINES WOULDN'T ALTER STATUS QUO: DPP

ROC Central News Agency

2006-02-12 16:12:07

    Taipei, Feb. 12 (CNA) The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus supports scrapping the National Unification Guidelines, and the status quo across the Taiwan Strait would by no means be affected by such an abolishment, a DPP legislative party whip said Sunday.

    Yeh Yi-jin, convener of the DPP caucus at the Legislative Yuan, said that the DPP caucus will throw its support behind the notion of abolishing the National Unification Council (NUC) and the National Unification Guidelines so long as the National Security Council puts forth such a suggestion to President Chen Shui-bian for approval.

    Yeh made the remarks in response to news reports that President Chen has instructed the National Security Council and Presidential Office Secretary-General Tan Sun Chen to study whether to include the abolishment of the NUC and the National Unification Guidelines into a plan to downsize the administrative structure of the Presidential Office.

    The NUC, established by the former Kuomintang government in the early 1990s, has been an unofficial agency under the Presidential Office.

    The National Security Council and the president's aides are expected to come up with a plan before the end of February to eliminate ad hoc commissions under the Presidential Office in line with a Legislative Yuan resolution.

    It is hoped that President Chen will fully inform Washington before the National Security Council submits the plan to him for implementation, Yeh said.

    News reports have said that President Chen's proposal to consider dissolving the NUC and the National Unification Guidelines -- made in a speech that he gave on Lunar New Year's Day Jan. 29 -- has irritated Washington.

    In that speech, the president said Taiwan should seriously consider scrapping the NUC and National Unification Guidelines and seeking to join the United Nations under the name of Taiwan and should draft a new constitution by the end of this year to pave the way for a referendum in 2007.

    Washington officials have reacted to the proposals by reiterating that the United States does not support any unilateral changes to the status quo by either Taiwan or China.

(By Deborah Kuo)

ENDITEM/Li