DPP resolves to call for abolition of NUC

After the adoption at a regular party central committee meeting, Yu Shyi-kun, DPP chairman, told a press conference the abolition would help stabilize the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.

The resolution endorses President Chen Shui-bian’s plan to scrap the institution created in 1990.

“Taiwan adheres to the maintenance of the status quo,” Yu said.

It is China that “is ruining that status quo,” Yu went on, adding: “The abolition (of the National Unification Council) serves to help maintain the cross-strait status quo.”

The council and the guidelines were created by the Kuomintang while Taiwan was under its autocratic rule, Yu said. Neither of them were legislated.

“Without the consent of the people,” the DPP chairman said, “they lack legitimacy, and by presupposing unification, they went to counter with the spirit of democracy that upholds national self-determination.”

Beijing adopted an anti-secession law in March last year, Yu said. The opposition and China have since collaborated to undermine Taiwan’s effort to keep a military balance across the strait, he added.

As a consequence, Yu continued, the people of Taiwan have become less able to determine their own future.

“By scrapping the National Unification Council, we’ll be able to prevent Taiwan from leaning toward unification and avoid its gradual annexation by China,” Yu pointed out.

Frank Hsieh, former premier, did not vote for the resolution at the central standing committee meeting.

Asked why he did not, Hsieh said, he did not think it was necessary for the DPP central standing committee to adopt a resolution to urge the abolition, which can be effected by “a bureau director” of the Office of the President.

Yu brushed aside Hsieh’s “opposition,” saying the ex-premier did not take part in the debate and the resolution was passed unanimously.

Lin Chuo-shui, a veteran DPP lawmaker, charged President Chen with “just trying to win support” of independence fundamentalists at the expense of Taipei’s cooperative relationship with Washington.

“He (the president) is minding only his own interests,” Lin accused.

Vice President Annette Lu said the abolition of the National Unification Council and the National Unification Guidelines is “purely an internal affair” of Taiwan.

The creation of the council was decided on at a central standing committee meeting 15 years ago, Lu said. “It’s an illegal institution,” she added.

Its abolition does not threaten the security of Asia and the Pacific, Lu went on. “What threatens it,” she stressed, “is the deployment of missiles along the Chinese coast.”

“We’ve borne with this illegitimate organization for too long,” the vice president said. “It’s time we tell the world why we should get rid of that organization.”

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