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NUC CESSATION GIVES PEOPLE RIGHT TO DECIDE TAIWAN'S FUTURE: PRESIDENT

ROC Central News Agency

2006-03-30 22:55:25

    Taipei, March 30 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Thursday that his decision to cease the functioning of the anachronistic National Unification Council (NUC) was mainly aimed at returning the prerogative to decide Taiwan's future to the people of the country.

    Moreover, Chen said, the NUC cessation and the shelving of the National Unification Guidelines (NUG) represents no change to the Taiwan Strait status quo.

    Chen made the remarks while meeting with a group of French National Assembly deputies, including Michel Hunault, who are visiting Taipei.

    Describing Taiwan as a liberal democracy, Chen said the people of Taiwan are entitled to full freedom to decide their country's future without the shackles of any preset conclusion or premise.

    Both the NUC and the NUG were created in the early 1990s when the pro-unification Kuomintang was in power. Chen told the French lawmakers that the NUC was not empowered by the Legislative Yuan and had no constitutional relevance. Without the consent of the Taiwan people, Chen said, the NUC prescribed "ultimate unification" of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait as its sole option and goal, in stark violation of the principle of "popular sovereignty."

    With Taiwan's democratization maturing, Chen said he decided Feb. 27 to cease the functioning of the NUC and the application of the NUG in a move to return the prerogative to decide Taiwan's future to its people.

    The decision by no means marked any change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, Chen said, adding that his move was an administrative adjustment to a body that advised only his office.

    Chen called for the international community to respect the Taiwan people's right to free choice and to respect the outcome of their choice.

    Touching on Taiwan-France relations, Chen said trade and commercial cooperation between the two countries has been cordial. In 2005, two-way trade amounted to US$3.97 billion, with France enjoying a surplus of US$1.16 billion. Taiwan is now France's sixth-largest export outlet and fifth-largest import source in Asia, and Chen said he is convinced there is still room for Taiwan-France trade to grow.

    He also expressed his keen hope that the 25-state European Union will maintain its ban on arms sales to China until China improves its human rights conditions, renounces the option of using force against Taiwan and refrains from exporting weapons of mass destruction. The E.U. imposed the arms embargo in 1989 after the Tiananmen massacre, in which Chinese troops brutally crushed unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators. Chen said a lifting of the ban would be tantamount to encouraging China's military intimidation of Taiwan and would threaten peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

(By Sofia Wu)

ENDITEM/J