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NUC CESSATION COUNTERMEASURE TO CHINA'S MILITARY BUILDUP: MAC

ROC Central News Agency

2006-03-08 00:32:41

    Tokyo, March 7 (CNA) Taiwan's decision to cease its National Unification Council (NUC) and National Unification Guidelines (NUG) was a countermeasure against China's intensified military buildup against the island, a Japanese newspaper said Tuesday, quoting Taiwan's top mainland policy planner.

    The Nihon Keizai Shimbun quoted Joseph Wu, chairman of Taiwan's Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) , as saying in an interview with the Japanese daily a day earlier that the NUC and NUG cessation was aimed to counter China's enactment of its Anti-Secessation Law targeting Taiwan in March 2005 and its ever-increasing missile deployment against Taiwan.

    Wu was also quoted as saying in the interview conducted in Taipei that Taiwan and China have been unrelated since 1949 and that Taiwan's future should be decided by its 23 million people, not anybody else. "This is a consensus in Taiwan, " Wu said, adding that President Chen Shui-bian's decision to have the NUC cease to function and the NUG cease to apply was a pertinent judgment. The NUC and the NUG, both of which were created by the previous Kuomintang government and upheld cross-strait unification as an ultimate goal, ran against the "self-determination" and "popular sovereignty" democratic principles, he stressed.

    Over the past 18 years, Wu went on, China has consistently raised its military budget at a double-digit rate, which has sabotaged military balance across the Taiwan Strait and represented a unilateral move to alter the cross-strait status quo.

    Worse still, Wu said that since its enactment of the Anti-Secession Law, China has stepped up engagements with Taiwan's pro-unification opposition parties in an attempt to drive wedges between Taiwan's ruling and opposition camps. In the face of China's divisive strategy and military threat, Wu said it is necessary for Taiwan to take measures to protect its unique national identity and security.

(By Mike Chang and Sofia Wu)

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