President Chen: Taiwan's future should be decided by the people in a referendum

President Chen reaffirmed the longstanding DPP policy that only the Taiwanese people have a right to decide Taiwan's future, and they should make that decision one day by referendum.

While speaking with a visiting Republican party delegation from the US, President Chen expressed that he knows the US does not like plans for the referendum on entering the UN on the name of Taiwan, but that Taiwan is walking along the democratic road and there cannot be limited democracy: Taiwan’s future must be decided by referendum.

The president attacked the way China treats Taiwan, say it’s like “a man with a gun in one hand and the other hand on our throats as we are pushed into a corner. He doesn’t want us to breathe. The 23 million people of Taiwan cannot surrender and cannot simply wait for death. As a result, in the 2008 election the Taiwanese people face an important choice. That is, do Taiwanese want to walk down the “correct” path of Taiwan-centered consciousness, or the “surrendering” path of “greater China” ideology?

Meanwhile, Frank Hsieh has repeated that since Taiwan is already a soverign, independent nation called the Republic of China, there's no need for a referendum on the Taiwanese independence or unification issue. That might not make the Taiwanese Independence people pleased, but it's been Chen's position and makes sense. There's no inherent conflict between Hsieh's and Chen's position. In fact, Chen holds both but only talks about the one at a time.

Ma called on Hsieh not to break his word on this one.