• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

BEIJING HAS BECOME MORE TOLERANT OF 'REPUBLIC OF CHINA': KMT HEAD

ROC Central News Agency

2006-03-24 12:13:15

    Washington, March 23 (CNA) The People's Republic of China seems to have become more tolerant of the existence of the Republic of China now that Beijing has to make a choice between the "Republic of China" and the "Republic of Taiwan, " Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou said Thursday.

    Ma made the remarks during a briefing on "Taiwan's Role in Peace and Stability in East Asia" co-hosted by the Brookings Institution and the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

    According to Ma, the PRC hated the ROC in the past and considered it a defunct regime, but Beijing has now changed its attitude towards the ROC.

    Although Beijing still does not recognize the ROC, it seems to be tolerant of it, because if the ROC were cease to exist, Beijing would have to face the problem of Taiwan independence, which would be a more difficult one than dealing with the ROC.

    In what Ma called " a choice between two evils, " Ma said Beijing obviously needs to make a choice between the "Republic of China" and the "Republic of Taiwan" and that Beijing can do so by tolerating the existence of the ROC without recognizing it.

    He noted that this was exactly the goal sought by the National Unification Guidelines, namely that neither side denies the existence of the other.

    Ma pointed out that the PRC cannot recognize the ROC according to the PRC Constitution, while the ROC cannot recognize the PRC, either, according to the ROC Constitution.

    However, both sides can tolerate the existence of the other, Ma said, adding that the issue has been dealt with in amendments to the ROC Constitution in which the terms "Taiwan area" and "mainland area" are used to refer to the territories currently governed by the ROC and the PRC, respectively.

    He said Beijing's priority now is to prevent Taiwan independence, rather than promoting unification.

    He said Beijing had for a very long time not mentioned that "Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China, " but it recently repeated the expression after President Chen Shui-bian's move to cease the function of the National Unification Council and cease the application of the National Unification Guidelines.

    Also Thursday, Ma met with several U.S. Department of Defense officials including Peter W. Rodman, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, at the headquarters of the American Institute in Taiwan located in the U.S. capital.

(By Oliver Lin and Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/Li