MAC likens NUGs to anti-secession law

Wu said the guidelines have to be reassessed because the goal of eventually uniting the two sides of the strait “bears much semblance” to China’s anti-secession law.

The U.S. government and the opposition camp in Taiwan have all expressed strong objection to the anti-secession law, he pointed out.

If Taipei keeps the guidelines, it will “cause misunderstanding” in the international community, Wu said.

President Chen Shui-bian is looking to abolish the guidelines and the National Unification Council, but the attempt has sparked condemnation by the opposition camp and reportedly has angered Washington.

The U.S. government reportedly sees it as a breach of Chen’s “five noes” promises, and as Taipei’s unilateral move to change the cross-strait status quo.

But Wu said during an interview by a local TV channel that Taipei has not received any U.S. official messages saying Washington was “angered” by Chen’s call for the abolition of the guidelines.

He said the guidelines and council date from the early 1990s during the Kuomintang rule.

But a party cannot dictate the country’s future, and Taiwan’s future must be decided by its 23 million people, he said.

KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou declined to comment on Wu’s comparison of the unification guidelines and the anti-secession law, according to the Central News Agency.

But Ma, currently on a visit in London, urged the government to “put out the fire as soon as possible,” the CNA reported.

The Presidential Office is expected to finish a review by the end of this month concerning the fate of a number of non-institutional bodies, including the National Unification Council, officials said.

The review has been prompted by a resolution passed by the opposition-controlled Legislature looking to dissolve some non-institutional bodies set up under the Presidential Office.

Those named by lawmakers include the preparatory group for a national human rights memorial museum, the science and technology advisory committee, and the constitutional re-engineering office.

President Chen has instructed Presidential Secretary General Tan Sun Chen to work out a solution that takes into consideration both the legal and political aspects of the issue, officials said.

Although the Legislature has not asked for the dismantling of the unification council, the Presidential Office has included it in the review because it is also a non-institutional body, they said.

But they stressed the Presidential Office will need to study the matter thoroughly, in light of the possible political impact it involves.

Vice President Annette Lu said the guidelines’ objective of establishing “a unified China enjoying freedom, wealth, equality and prosperity” has become outdated.

She likened the guidelines to frozen food.

“The Democratic Progressive Party is only checking if the food has begun to stink after being frozen in the refrigerator for so many years,” Lu said while addressing a trade union gathering in Taoyuan County.

She asserted that Taiwan must not allow others to dictate what it should or should not do, because “it is not a state of the United States, nor is it a province of China.”

“We have our own position on this issue. People should not treat the National Unification Guidelines as if it were an imperial decree,” she said.

DPP officials said Chen’s “five noes” were based on the precondition that Beijing renounce its intention of using force against Taiwan.

China’s continued military build-up is an indication that it has the intention and ability to invade Taiwan, they said.

They said the president’s plan stressed the democratic value that “the people of Taiwan have the right to determine their own fate” and was aimed at clarifying the mainstream public opinion in Taiwan to Beijing and the international community.

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