Date: February 19, 2019
MAC Press Release No. 023
1. The government is committed to peace, but will not discuss political agreements that amount to surrender with a regime that insists on imposing unification by force and “One Country, Two Systems”
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government has always advocated peaceful and stable cross-Strait development; and Taiwan has consistently played a role in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the region. However, for peace between the two sides to be maintained, Mainland China must refrain from military coercion; if the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) does not renounce unification by the use of force, it serves no purpose to have more agreements. With Beijing authorities continue to seek to impose the political frameworks of “one country, two systems” and the “One-China Policy” on Taiwan, the government will not advocate the signing of any political agreements that would eradicate national sovereignty or damage Taiwan’s democracy.
2. The government will establish a comprehensive mechanism to defend democracy as a “safety valve”
The government plans to establish a mechanism to defend democracy absolutely with regard to any cross-Strait political issues that may arise. This is what the President has referred to as a “security network for democracy”. The mechanism is intended to prevent the government, regardless of which political party is in power, placing individual or party will above the will of the people, using sovereignty as a bargaining chip, and thereby causing consequences that could irreversibly jeopardize national sovereignty and damage democracy.
3. All relevant processes must pass the test of public opinion set to a high standard and threshold
Rather than being governed by the standards of the current Referendum Act, the mechanism to defend democracy and security network are subject to the highest threshold. Our plan involves establishing relevant democracy monitoring procedures within the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area. The procedures mean that, in order to hold any negotiations involving political issues, the Executive Yuan must submit a negotiation plan to the Legislative Yuan, and the plan must be approved by two thirds of legislators before negotiations can begin. Prior to this, the Executive Yuan may hold consultative referendum(s) to gauge popular opinion. However, such referendum(s) will not be subject to the restrictions of the Referendum Act, as any consultative referendums would serve only as a reference. The Executive Yuan is asked to formulate the methods and rules pertaining to such a consultative referendum. Furthermore, whatever is negotiated on cross-Strait political issues, all proposals are to be sent to the Legislative Yuan for review. Three quarters of legislators need to be present at the discussion and with at least three quarters of attending legislators to vote for the proposal. Once the proposal has been agreed and promulgated, a nationwide referendum will then be in order, and more than half of the electorate must agree to the proposal before it can be passed. The reason for setting such a high threshold is that any cross-Strait political issues without a high degree of public consensus would only result in greater controversy and confusion.