Chang Jung-kung’s Response to Washington Post Report

KMT News Release

Chang Jung-kung’s Response to Washington Post Report

Source: Culture and Communications Committee

February 22, 2009

In response to a report published in the Washington Post, Chang Jung-kung, KMT deputy secretary general and director of KMT Department of Mainland Affairs, pointed out that a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) between Taiwan and Mainland China was a win-win strategy based on the cross-Strait status quo, and that the CECA could stabilize the current situation and promote future development between both sides. If Taiwan were deterred by comments made by an individual Mainland scholar, the price Taiwan would pay could be beyond imagination, added Chang.

The Washington Post quoted a Mainland scholar who said, “CECA is a necessary condition for marching forward toward final unification.” Chang said that exaggerations of the comment by the DPP, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, and the pro-Independence media were being used to intimidate the society. In particular, Chang warned that by creating a political panic to put off economic cooperation across the Taiwan Strait would force Taiwan to be completely marginalized in the process of economic integration in East Asia. Without the cross-Strait CECA, Chang stressed that there would be no way out for Taiwan’s economy, and that the current stable cross-Strait situation would become more difficult to maintain.

Chang pointed out that since a free-trade zone between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Mainland China would be kicked off next year, Taiwan’s economic situation could no longer withstand another serious external trade tsunami after having experienced the global financial tsunami. Therefore, many prominent business and industry leaders recently appealed to the KMT Administration to grasp the positive response on the CECA in Hu Jintao’s “Six Points” Speech, issued on the last day of 2008, in order to break through the economic stagnation.

Chang stated that leaders of the Chinese Communist Party would still insist on their political agenda, but Taiwan should not easily give up its own efforts in stabilizing the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. Additionally, the state of “no unification and no independence” depended on benign interactions between Taiwan and Mainland China, added Chang. He warned if the opposition parties, in opposing the CECA, hoped to achieve Taiwan Independence through economic independence, this might backfire, leading Mainland China to speed up its unification process attempt. As a result, Chang said, “Precipitous de jure independence results in precipitous unification,” and “De jure Taiwan independence triggers a cross-Strait unification by military force.” None would be a beneficial outcome to either Taiwan or cross-Strait relations.

Chang went on to criticize the DPP for its do-nothing attitude toward the issue of Taiwan being marginalized over the eight years of DPP rule. Chang said, now the DPP was trying to exaggerate an individual Mainland scholar’s personal expectations as reason enough to oppose the CECA, ignoring the external challenges Taiwan was facing. Apparently, all this originated from the illusory idea of “Taiwan Independence,” oblivious to the actual needs of the private sector, Chang added.

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