During the “Ketagalan Forum—2021 Asia-Pacific Security Dialogue” on August 31, President Tsai Ing-wen stated that Taiwan does not wish to move towards military confrontation and hopes to coexist with its neighboring countries under the principles of peace, stability, and mutual benefit. The Kuomintang (KMT) indicates that the wording of “neighboring countries” is ambiguous and might be unconstitutional while contradicting her past statements and challenging cross-strait relations.
One of the “neighboring countries” she is referring to during the speech is obviously Mainland China. However, her promises to abide by the ROC Constitution and the Act Governing Cross-Strait Relations clearly fall short in her attempt to justify Taiwan independence. This is not only a violation of her political commitments and responsibilities as the president of the ROC, but it is also tantamount to changing the status quo, which will cause more disputes and conflicts across the Taiwan Strait.
President Tsai’s remarks about not moving towards military confrontation seemed to show goodwill to the other side of the Strait, but the violation of the constitutional entrustment on key issues is purely stepping on the bottom line of the legal principles of cross-strait relations and will only deepen the people’s distrust of their cross-strait line.
Kurt Campbell, U.S. President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific policy coordinator , has stated clearly that Taiwan independence is not supported by the United States. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) action of increasing tensions in the Taiwan Strait during such a sensitive time in the international community is definitely not helping anyone. The KMT would like to stress that during the administration of President Bill Clinton, then President Lee Teng-hui’s “Two-State Theory” led to severe pressure on Taiwan from both the mainland and the United States. It is simply irresponsible and ignorant for the Tsai administration to make such remarks.
Finally, the KMT demands that the DPP follow the Constitution to ensure stability in the Taiwan Strait. Nevertheless, the KMT also demands that mainland China renounce the use of force to invade Taiwan. All mainland Chinese military aircraft and ships encroaching on Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) and waters certainly doesn’t help in resolving the deadlock.
