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Premier denies need for China policy changes

ROC Central News Agency

2009/12/07 16:36:02
Taipei, Dec. 7 (CNA) Premier Wu Den-yih denied Monday that there is a need to change government policy toward China, despite the ruling Kuomintang's (KMT's) poorer-than-expected performance in Saturday's local elections.

The ruling party, which controlled 14 out of the 17 counties and cities involved in the elections prior to Saturday's polling, managed to hang on to 12 of them.

Wu said the government's policy is the result of comprehensive thinking, long discussion and broad consultation, and has not been formulated in haste.

With regard to the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China, the government will go ahead with it as planned, as it will serve Taiwan's interests and benefit the public, he added.

However, the premier said, the government's policy toward China should still meet three requirements -- the country's needs, public support and legislative supervision.

The government will not push any policy that fails to meet any of those requirements, Wu went on.

Noting that the proposed ECFA enjoys a support rate of 50 percent to 56 percent among the public according to the latest poll results, Wu said he hopes to boost this figure to 60 percent, while bringing opposition down to below 20 percent.

"We are working hard on this," the premier said, adding that good policy should be carried out at the right time and should be fully understood by the people, which he admitted is something the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou has not managed effectively.

For example, he said, some people in central and southern Taiwan believe mistakenly that the Ma administration has opened Taiwan to many Chinese agricultural products.

In fact, among the 1,415 items of Chinese agricultural products allowed to be imported into Taiwan, 479 items were approved by the previous KMT administration, with the other 936 approved by the Democratic Progressive Party when it was in power.

"However, President Ma's administration has not approved any items thus far," the premier pointed out.

(By Hsieh Chia-chen and Maubo Chang) ENDITEM/J