‘A Leader’s Campaign’

Re: The secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party, Hu Jintao, accusing Taiwan of taking a “dangerous step” toward independence – President Chen Shuibian’s recent decision to cease the functioning of an anachronistic body, the National Unification Council, and shelve the National Unification Guidelines, represents no change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait [“A Leader’s Campaign To Break Away From China,” Kin-ming Liu, Foreign, March 2, 2006].

It is incomprehensible how the cessation of a nonfunctioning body could result in a change of the status quo. Mr. Chen is Taiwan’s elected leader, and as the national leader he has made an administrative adjustment to a body that advises only his office. The National Unification Council was not empowered by the legislature and has no constitutional relevance.

While China seeks to undermine the current status of Taiwan, a self-governing nation with a democratically elected leadership, Taiwan is accused of changing the status quo.

One should remember that China has vowed to take Taiwan by force if necessary, giving it a pseudo-legal foundation through the adoption of the “Anti-Secession Law,” and is building a missile force to convince Taiwan to abandon democratic government.

While China continues to stifle freedoms in its own land, Taiwan continues to develop peacefully and democratically. As in any democracy, policy adjustments will be made, even as the central principles guiding the nation are upheld.

Taiwan has no intention of roiling the waters of the Taiwan Strait, nor does it intend to give up its prerogatives as a democratic self-governing nation.

CHEN WEN-TSANG
Minister
Government Information Office
Taiwan

‘Campaign To Break From China’

Thank you for a valuable addition to the debate about President Chen’s recent move to cease the National Unification Council and Guidelines for National Unification [“A Leader’s Campaign To Break Away From China,” Kinming Liu, Foreign, March 2, 2006]. Taiwan, as with any democratic country, has an obligation to permit its citizens to make crucial decisions about its future, and its president must ensure that this is possible.

China’s outcry against Mr. Chen’s decision is a predictable reaction from an autocracy that accords no importance to the democratic process or the obligations of a democratically elected leader. It bears repeating that Mr. Chen has been and remains committed to democracy and peaceably maintaining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.

ANDREW L. Y. HSIA
Director General
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office
Manhattan

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