25 déc. 2011

Dear Taiwan







“our generation would very possibly face the question of ultimate unification”


Extraits :
  • [Tsai:] “Taiwan is the ROC and the ROC is Taiwan.”
  • [Tsai:] if Ma succeeded in his re-election bid, “our generation would very possibly face the question of ultimate unification.”
  • [Tsai:] the ROC she referred to is the island of Taiwan and its outlying islands, which is different from the ROC Ma was talking about, which included all of China’s territory. “No matter whether [its the name] of Taiwan or ROC, it is the land that the people of Taiwan have fought for and the place where 23 million Taiwanese have lived for generations,” Tsai said.
  • [Tsai:] [Ma's] administration had only two approaches when dealing with economic policies. The first was to open up to China and use its market as a panacea for all economic woes, which led to the signing of the [ECFA], Tsai said, and the second was to raise debt and spend more money.

Extraits :
  • Cross-strait relations should be based on “mutual denial of each other’s sovereignty and mutual non-denial of respective jurisdictions,” Ma said, adding that in the process of current cross-strait relationships, it was preferable to retain a small gray area while actually getting some things done. Ma also said that if one treated the ROC as a government-in-exile, then nothing further could be said on the subject, adding that Tsai had this kind of “psychological disorder.”


Extraits :
  • Taiwan’s democracy has gone into reverse and been undermined by practices that bypass democratic procedures since President Ma Ying-jeou took office, [Tsai] said yesterday during a campaign stop in Chiayi City. It was during a meeting at Hsi-men Presbyterian church, renowned for its support for democracy and activism against the [KMT] authoritarian regime in the past, that Tsai mentioned her concerns about democracy in Taiwan. “The decline of democracy in Taiwan is alarming,” she said. This year’s Democracy Index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit rated Taiwan as a flawed democracy with a ranking of 37, down one from last year, while Japan and South Korea were both considered full democracies, she said.
  • The DPP chairperson then turned her focus on Ma [...] who said [...] that Tsai’s position on Taiwan’s national status that “The Republic of China [ROC] is Taiwan, and Taiwan is the ROC” was “unconstitutional.” “Interpretation of the Constitution is not absolute, as the Constitution allows flexibility, which stems from tolerance of different opinions,” she said. Tolerance is the keyword, Tsai said, adding that if Taiwan remains divided as a society and a country, it would be unable to move forward and deal with the enormous challenges it faces in the future. Tsai said she disagreed with Ma’s use of national identity as a campaign tool.
  • Ma’s mentality in his dealings with China over the past three years also suggested that he might risk Taiwan’s democratic values to achieve his own agenda, she said. Tsai reiterated that Taiwanese remain divided on cross-strait issues and that a democratic process was therefore needed to formulate a real “Taiwan consensus” — the main focus of her China policy — to first find common ground before negotiating with Beijing. On the basis of tolerance, Tsai said, anything could be included in the discussion on a consensus — including unification.
  • The way that the KMT turned its agreement with the Chinese Communist Party in 2005 into a state-to-state consensus without going through the legislature and consulting Taiwanese was inappropriate and violated the basic principle of democracy, Tsai said.


Extraits :
  • Citing democratization ranking information published by the Economist magazine, Tsai said Taiwan, ranked 32nd in 2006, was demoted to 36th in 2011 because the government was keeping an authoritarian mindset. "A government like this should go and get some rest," she said.





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