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Mar 18, 2008

One China, Tibet fallout

Ma has recently called Hsieh's comparison of Taiwan to Tibet inappropriate, and Hsieh had an interesting response: Taiwan's different because the DPP has rejected the One China principal, and called for Ma to reject eventual unification and the "common market" plan.

Good way to frame it, Hsieh.

Ma, for his part, is trying to appear less China-friendly in this critical run up to Saturday, so he has "not rejected" the idea of boycotting the Olympics (yeah right). Also, without explicitly rejecting anything Wen Jiaobao said about the One China principal, Ma has made a rather confrontational sounding set of statements at his press conference. In summary, they are:

  1. The Republic of China is a soverign and independent country, and Taiwan's future must be decided by the people of Taiwan. We will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to interfere. Wen Jiabao's statement was outrageous and unreasonable, prideful and stupid, self-rightous, and ignored the mainstream opinion of Taiwanese people. We seriously object to his remarks.
  2. We seek peace and avoiding independence, unification and the use of violence.
  3. Taiwanese people want back into the UN and we'll support that.
  4. We strongly condemn the Chinese Communist crackdown in Tibet as outrageous and unreasonable.
  5. As the ROC president, I will visit Tibetan friends and the Dalai Lama and seek to have everyone condemn the Communists' handling of this situation.
  6. Should the CCP's oppression continue, I would not reject the idea of boycotting the Olympics in protest.

Very interesting posturing, but it is only posturing. He does agree with Hu on the most critical point in any way whatsoever, which is that Taiwan and "the mainland" both belong to One China.

2 comments:

Haitien said...

3. Taiwanese people want back into the UN and we'll support that.

So, is Ma going to put his money where his mouth is and call for people to vote yes in both referendums now?

阿牛 said...

Only for the KMT one. And very quietly at that.