Ma's "two regions" formula

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As we all probably can still recall, Ma got into office talking about a Taiwan-first policy, economic on rejuvenation and better relations with China sans Formosa sellout. Most people saw this wasn't likely to be the case.

And indeed, it wasn't. Last Friday the Liberty Times was livid about an interview (English) Ma Ying-jeou had with a Mexican paper in which Ma rejected the formulation of the interviewer, who called Taiwan a sovereign and independent country, and insisted relations between Taiwan and China are a "special relationship" that are specifically not between two countries.

Ma has long accepted the 92 consensus, which explicitly rejects a "state-to-state" or even "two China's" ideology; but Ma has been pretty good at dodging this reality while pretending he's being slandered by the green side. That won't last much longer, I think.

Take this article about a speech Lee Teng-hui made recently:

Speaking with Mexican newspaper Sol de Mexico last month, Ma defined ties between Taiwan and China as “special relations,” reversing a decade-long government position.

The text of the interview was released by the Presidential Office last Wednesday. The next day, the Office elaborated on the text, saying that under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution and the Statute Governing the Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the relationship between Taiwan and China is one between two regions....

At a fundraising dinner last night in Taipei, Lee said that Taiwan is a de jure, independent country and that only the people, not the president, have the power to change the cross-strait “status quo” in a referendum.

“When I was president back in 1999, I at least advocated that Taiwan and China had ‘special state-to-state relations’ and that Taiwan certainly does not have an internal relationship with China,” Lee said.

“The people have elected Ma as their leader. But it does not authorize him to surrender Taiwan’s sovereignty. The decisive power lies in the hands of the people. If any changes were to take place, they would have to be through a referendum — to let the people determine their future,” he added.

So, let's just hope that's not the sound of sovereignty slipping away ...