'One country, two areas' is based on ROC Constitution: Ma
ROC Central News Agency
2012/03/28 23:26:55
Taipei, March 28 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou said Wednesday that since 20 years ago, the concept of "one country, two areas" has been clearly stated in the Republic of China's Constitution.
"This is a very clear fact since former President Lee Teng-hui's administration and has been followed by former President Chen Shui-bian. It's nothing new," Ma was quoted as telling a meeting of the Central Standing Committee of the Kuomintang (KMT), which he heads.
The president quoted a report of the pro-opposition Liberty Times on Oct. 22, 1992, when Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Huang Kun-huei was chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, as telling legislators that "one country, two areas" was a key component of the country's mainland policy.
Ma said he was particularly impressed by Huang's reply to lawmakers' questions because he was Huang's deputy at the MAC at the time, according to participants in the KMT meeting.
Huang at that time told the lawmakers that "our jurisdiction currently covers Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu only. If the Communist Chinese authorities say Taiwan is part of China, we can also say the mainland is part of China," said Ma.
The Liberty Times report quoted legislators as praising Huang's position of "no rush toward unification and no rush toward independence," and used a Chinese phrase to show their support of the MAC's China policy -- "With you in charge, we are at ease."
Ma said when the Constitution was amended in 1992, a provision had been added that a special law will be legislated to govern relations between the "free area" and the "mainland area" of the country.
That is the background of the current Act Governing Relations Between People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, according to the president.
He said a new definition of the relations between Taiwan and mainland China had thus come into being since 1992. "The whole thing is based on our constitutional framework," he stressed.
Opposition politicians questioning the legitimacy of his mainland policy need just "refer back to the constitution" to put it in perspective and see things clearly, said the president.
"It's nothing new. No one has given it any new meaning," he said, reiterating the government's definition of "one country, two areas" as meaning "one Republic of China, two areas" -- the Mainland area and the Taiwan area.
"This is an important constitutional structure that had been built since the time of former President Lee Teng-hui," who was the head of state between 1988 and 2000, said Ma.
He urged the KMT's senior members to fully understand the ROC Constitution and its legal background and to explain the government policy to the people.
He said based on the Constitution, his government will continue to seek to stabilize cross-strait relations and maintain the status quo of "no unification, no independence and no use of force."
He added that the government will try to seek a peaceful development of cross-strait ties based on the "1992 consensus" -- a tacit agreement between Taipei and Beijing that there is only one China, with each side free to interpret what "one China" means.
For Taiwan, "one China" is the Republic of China, he said, and he added that the proper way of developing cross-strait ties is for both sides to put aside their disputes while jointly working for a win-win situation across the Taiwan Strait.
Later in the day, KMT Honorary Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung, whose statement about "one country, two areas" during a meeting with China's top leader last week triggered a heated debate on the issue in Taiwan, returned to the island.
Wu said he had not expected his conversation with Hu Jintao would have stirred up such a whirlwind in Taipei's talking mill. "I thought I had made my point very clearly" in Beijing, he told reporters upon arriving at the Taiwan Toayuan International Airport.
Wu said Beijing cares about "one China" and knows "it means, to us, the Republic of China" but "finds it inconvenient to rebut what I meant."
"This is an interesting development" that is "worth close watching," he added.
He dismissed the opposition's criticism of his "one country, two areas" message, saying he would refrain himself from quoting what the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) people were saying regarding the issue.
But he did not mince his words when he fired a veiled salvo at the DPP, saying "the gravest danger to Taiwan is that some people (in the opposition) simply would not acknowledge the existence of the ROC."
(By Lee Shu-hua, Chiu Chun-ching and S.C. Chang)
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