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TAIWAN PLEDGES TO MAINTAIN CROSS-STRAIT STATUS QUO

ROC Central News Agency

2006-03-25 13:01:07

    Washington, March 24 (CNA) Taiwan fully supports the U.S. policy of maintaining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait because it is against Taiwan's interests to change it, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council Minister Joseph Wu said Friday. "The status quo in the Taiwan Strait is that the two sides, China and Taiwan, are fully separate entities, neither having jurisdiction over the other, best exemplified by the democratization of Taiwan, which occurred without regard to what the state of affairs was across the Strait," Wu said in an article published in the Washington Times.

    Addressing U.S. concerns that President Chen Shui-bian's move to cease the function of the National Unification Council (NUC) and the National Unification Guidelines might constitute a unilateral change to the status quo, Wu said the action was fully in line with democratic principles and that the NUC and its guidelines were "remnants of a past regime" marked by authoritarianism and martial law under the Kuomintang. "The NUC and its guidelines specify that the only course open to a democratic Taiwan is unification with authoritarian China, which goes against a fundamental and guiding democratic principle that the people have the right to determine their own destiny," Wu said.

    Wu said U.S. President George W. Bush's open praise of Taiwan's democratic developments during his Japan visit in November 2005 was encouragement for Taiwan and that Taiwan's efforts to refine its democracy deserves U.S. support because it can be "a beacon for democracy activists in China to follow."

    However, he said, despite the pride in the country's developments, there is a clear sense of insecurity in Taiwan owing to China's military threat against it.

    He noted that China is becoming increasingly influential internationally and that it has been using its power to marginalize and suffocate Taiwan.

    A year ago, China passed the "Anti-Secession Law" which claimed Taiwan to be a part of China and legalized the use of non-peaceful means against Taiwan to enforce that claim, and Beijing again threatened Taiwan when President Chen unveiled his idea of ceasing the NUC and its guidelines, he pointed out.

    He said Taiwan is deeply committed to maintaining peace and stability in the region, but issues of political reform will continue to be open to public debate despite China's military threat.

(By Wennie Chi and Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/diG