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DPP says China's 'threatening' remarks unnecessary

ROC Central News Agency

2011/07/29 20:13:40

Taipei, July 29 (CNA) The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said Friday it is willing to pursue common interests with China, and that Beijing's "threatening remarks" prior to Taiwan's 2012 presidential election are "unnecessary."

The DPP statement was issued in a response to remarks by Wang Yi, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office under China's State Council, during a meeting with Taiwanese expatriates in the U.S. recently.

Wang touted President Ma Ying-jeou's cross-Taiwan Strait policies and criticized DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen for supporting the "one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait" claim and advocating Taiwan's independence from China.

In response, the DPP reiterated that it is willing to pursue the common interests of peace, stability, prosperity and development with China, and that it will push for the normalization of economic and trade relations across the Taiwan Strait if it is elected to government.

The opposition party also said it will seek to renegotiate and adjust the existing agreements between the two sides so that the Taiwanese people will benefit.

Beijing should understand that neither side is subordinate to the other and should accept any change in political power as a democratic norm, DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang said, adding that China should not view its Taiwan policy as a failure if the DPP regains power.

Cheng said the two sides should resolve their differences through communication. Forcing on Taiwan's people and the DPP a consensus reached between the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party does not help to solve the problem, he said.

Another DPP spokesman, Liang Wen-chieh, said his party was used to seeing Chinese envoys making lobbying trips to the U.S. ahead of Taiwan's presidential elections, and that the DPP agreed with Wang's remarks that the two sides "should cherish the current peaceful development of cross-Taiwan Strait relations."

However, "China's threatening remarks, which can always be heard ahead of Taiwan elections, are unnecessary," he said.

The Taiwanese people have grown numb to these remarks after four presidential elections, he added. (By Sophia Yeh and Christie Chen) Enditem/pc