• Military

• WMD Menu                           

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

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Taiwan should discard `guise' of Republic of China: president

ROC Central News Agency

2007-10-11 16:36:28

    Taipei, Oct. 11 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Thursday that Taiwan should stop taking the "guise" of the Republic of China, as the country's sovereign territory covers only Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu but not China.

    Chen urged the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) to stop "deceiving" the people of Taiwan and recognize "the fact that the name Republic of China is totally unacceptable in the international community, " noting that the name has been rejected in almost all international organizations, including the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the World Trade Organization and the World Health Organization. "Don't do things that not even you (the KMT) believe in. Having been cheating for decades, are you going to go on cheating? " Chen asked.

    Chen made the remarks during a news conference held ahead of his planned visit to the Marshall Islands, during which he also announced his acceptance of the chairmanship of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

    A day earlier, KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou accused the DPP of "colluding with the Chinese communists to eradicate the ROC, " after Chen avoided the term ROC in his National Day Address and substituted it with Taiwan.

    In defense, Chen said Ma should not have said things that were "inconsistent with history, " claiming that the ROC was toppled by the Communist Party of China rather than by the DPP.

    Even the late ROC President and KMT Chairman Chiang Kai-shek, who resumed office in Taipei in 1950 after fleeing from China to Taiwan, admitted that the loss of China to the communists meant the downfall of the ROC, according to Chen.

    Chen further challenged Ma to clarify if the ROC he referred to was the one that co-founded the United Nations in 1945, while calling Ma's attention to the facts that Taiwan was a Japanese colony when the ROC was established in 1912 in Nanjing, China and that the ROC Constitution did not include Taiwan when it was drafted in 1946. "It was the existence of Taiwan that enabled Chiang Kai-shek to continue his regime here under the guise of the ROC. Let bygones be bygones, but we must be very clear as to what we are," Chen said.

    Pointing out that as many as 85 percent of the people in Taiwan think the country's sovereignty covers only Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu but not China or Outer Mongolia, Chen called on the KMT to admit the "factual status quo" that "Taiwan is Taiwan."

(By Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/J