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Updated Monday, December 20, 2010 11:10 am TWN, CNA

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Chinese dissident urges DPP to be open to China

TAIPEI, Taiwan — An exiled Chinese dissident urged Taiwan's leading opposition party Sunday to pay more attention to the views of academics in the formulation of its China policy and to have greater engagement with China's civic society.

“The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should listen more closely to the opinions in academic circles instead of only those in its inner circle,” said Wang Dan, who was one of the student leaders in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest.

The DPP would have a better chance of winning the 2012 presidential election if it developed a sound policy to maintain cross-Taiwan Strait ties, said Wang, who is currently a visiting assistant professor at Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University.

Wang said people in academic circles often come up with good ideas that can be valuable to policy makers in both the DPP and ruling Kuomintang.

Wang and former DPP Legislator Luo Wen-jia will jointly set up the cross-strait democracy and culture offices in both Taipei and New York primarily to push for the establishment of a platform to facilitate private sector dialogue between Taiwan and China.

In response to a reporter's question on whether the office will advise DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen to visit China, Wang said that is an issue the DPP itself should assess.

However, he said, “It's better to initiate some kind of engagement than to have none.”

If Tsai decided to visit China, one of the issues would be whom she should meet there, he said.

It would be somewhat narrow-minded if she met only with Chinese officials or ranking members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), he said.

“Tsai should meet with people in China's civic society,” he suggested.

Luo said the DPP should seek closer engagement with China, particularly beyond the Chinese government and the CPC.

Luo said the cross-strait private-sector dialogue platform that the offices are aiming to set up will be completely different from a DPP think-tank and it will not be influenced by elections or people in high office.

One of its tasks will be to change the DPP's anti-China image — the perception that the party has a closed-door policy toward China and refuses to engage with Beijing, Luo said.

It will also seek to lead the DPP toward closer engagements with China's civic society as means of better understanding the Chinese people and propagating the DPP's ideals, he added.

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Comments

December 21, 2010 carltanong@

ludahai_nippon n cigar898
Is 2010 is the year's of the MONKEY???

Isn't it weird that 3 MONKEY'S has visited R.O.China Taiwan this year?

1st Monkey was Fake Monk Dalai Lama the DEMON.
2nd Monkey was TERRORIST Rebiya Kadeer daughter.
3rd Monkey was Wang Dan. Famous in fabricating the Goddess of Democracy for the purposes of DECEPTION. and cause the DEATH of thousand of his fellow students life for his OWN GREED with BENEFITS. Is he scouting a VENUE to erect his infamous Goddess of Democracy in Taipei City for another incidence that BENEFITED himself?

I hope SANTA CLAUS will come to R.0.China bringing PEACE, HARMONY and PROSPERITY to the peoples of TAIWAN this Yuletide Season. And welcome the Year of the RAT soon.

And let the FIREWORKS in 101 to sweep away the 3 MONKEYS FOOTPRINTS of bad luck.