China sabotages the cross-strait status quo and maliciously misleads the international community
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) emphasized today (August 28, 2007) that Taiwan is already an independent sovereign country. The status quo across the Taiwan Strait is that Taiwan and China have no jurisdiction over each other. In an interview with international journalists a few days ago, President Chen Shui-bian clearly indicated that there is no need for Taiwan to declare independence. In response to the statement made today by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, the MAC reiterates that as a member of the international community, Taiwan has the right to participate in international organizations. The public referendum on "entry into the United Nations under the name of Taiwan" reflects the fact that the 23 million Taiwanese people hope to highlight their collective will through the democratic process as well as to denounce China's peremptory actions aimed at imposing international political isolation on the Taiwanese people. Such a democratic referendum is intended to protect the status quo across the Taiwan Strait rather than to change the status quo. There is no such thing as carrying out a referendum on U.N. membership to change the official name of Taiwan and further declare independence.
The MAC indicated that China has ignored Taiwan's mainstream public opinion and the democratic achievements in Taiwan, and has used every conceivable means to intimidate and suppress Taiwan's diplomatic activities. In the international arena, China ignores the reality of the existence of the Republic of China and has incessantly suppressed and isolated Taiwan by adopting abominable and peremptory approaches. On the surface China advocates "peaceful unification," but in reality it has frequently stepped up its military intimidation and economic pressure against Taiwan. Aside from deploying 1,000 missiles targeted at Taiwan, China has threatened to solve the Taiwan issue by using the "non-peaceful means" stipulated in Article 8 of the Anti-secession Law (the so-called Anti-separation Law) in an attempt to create instability in the region and anxiety among neighboring countries. China is the very "troublemaker in the international community" that has sought to sabotage the cross-strait status quo.
The MAC emphasized that the referendum on Taiwan's entry into the United Nations is a public referendum initiated by Taiwan’s civil society. The Democratic Progressive Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party have both made similar proposals and even planned to stage a huge demonstration respectively on September 15, 2007. These activities have not been conducted with the government taking initiative and are entirely different from the defense referendum initiated by President Chen Shui-bian in 2004. President Chen and the government do not have the right to stop these activities. The MAC urges the United States government to support the Taiwanese people's efforts, respect Taiwan's democratic system, and avoid being misled by China and giving an erroneous signal for autocratic China to further suppress and threaten democratic Taiwan.