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Chen scraps 'unification council, guidelines'
(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2006-02-28 05:41
A statement issued by the office warned that the move would inevitably
trigger a serious crisis in the Straits, and destroy peace and stability in the
Asia-Pacific region.
Li Jiaquan, a senior researcher with the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Chen's decision is an attempt to
unilaterally upset the cross-Straits status quo.
"By abandoning the unification council and guidelines, Chen has actually
excluded the option of unification with the mainland," he told China Daily.
"Obviously he has imposed the will of himself and his party on all people on
the island."
In 1990, the previous Kuomintang (KMT) administration established the
council, which a year later adopted the guidelines seeking eventual unification
with the mainland.
The council, a subordinate office under the "presidential office," was
structured to comprise 32 leaders from both the government and the private
sector. Its main job: recommend unification policies to the "president," help
the government devise a "national unification framework" and build consensus at
all levels of society and among all political parties.
Currently there is no council member as the body has been dormant since Chen
took office in 2000 and ended the KMT's 51-year rule of the island.
In his inaugural speech in 2000, and again after re-election in 2004, Chen
vowed not to disband the council nor scrap the guidelines.
But last month, he reversed his position and said he was considering
abolishing the unification council and the guidelines.
The DPP voted last week to endorse the plan.
Opposition "lawmakers" from the KMT and the People First Party (PFP) have
condemned Chen's scheme and are planning massive protests or other measures to
counter-attack what they call "a move that goes against the wishes of the
people."
The PFP yesterday criticized the announcement, calling it Chen's "breach of
trust to the international community, to the opposition, to the people, and to
himself."
Taiwan businessmen, who have funded 68,095 projects on the mainland with
contracted investment of US$89.69 billion by the end of last year, were worried
over repercussions. "I don't understand why he tries to stir up cross-Straits
tensions and make our lives difficult," said Tony Cheng, a Taiwan businessman in
Shenzhen of Guangdong Province.
The United States, Taiwan's major arms supplier, had also pressed Chen not to
scrap the council, fearing this may lead to Taiwan's de jure "independence."
Washington has reiterated that it "does not support Taiwan's independence and
opposes unilateral changes to the status quo."
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