DPP objects to former Vice President Lu visiting China

The Taiwan South Society said it would stop help soliciting funding for a newspaper that Lu is planning to launch if the former vice president visited China.

Cheng Cheng-yu of the pro-independence group said a visit by such a high-caliber figure would send other Democratic Progressive Party heavyweights following suit.

DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang said the party would conduct a “full discussion” on the issue.

He said that relations with China is an issue of high priority for the party, and it will expend every effort to safeguard Taiwan's sovereignty and the interests of Taiwan's people when dealing with cross-strait relations.

Lu has proposed to visit China in her capacity as director of the Formosa Post, the newspaper she is planning to launch.

A major member from the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a political advisory body in the Chinese government, on Thursday expressed welcome to Lu's proposal, raising the chance of such a visit materializing.

Lu said yesterday that nothing specific has been worked out for the visit yet.

She said she will also respect the opinion of the newspaper's board of directors over the issue.

But she stressed that cross-strait ties cannot be allowed to be dictated by the ruling Kuomintang alone, and the opposition also has the responsibility of monitoring and understanding them.

In response to objections coming from the DPP and the opposition camp, Lu said she is now “free” and is not serving in any public office that can prevent her from going to China.

She said she visited China in 1990, but her pro-Taiwan independence stance has never wavered.

But the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Lu may need to government approval for going across the strait.

Under the law governing cross-strait relations, individuals with access to national secrets who have left office for less than three years must apply to visit China, the MAC said.

Lu, who retired from the vice presidency last May, would need to apply for her travel to China because she qualifies as a person who has had access to national secrets, the MAC said.

DPP legislative leader Ker Chien-ming said he is confident that Lu's “judgment and wisdom” would prevent her from allowing such a trip to change her stance.

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