Wikileaks: DPP’s New Tide Faction Established Channels with Mainland Without Informing Chen Shui-bian

Wikileaks: DPP’s New Tide Faction Established Channels with Mainland Without Informing Chen Shui-bian

Source: All Taipei newspapers
September 13, 2011

The WikiLeaks website recently posted a leaked US diplomatic cable sent from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) in April 2005 detailing that Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌), an elder of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) New Tide faction, disclosed to then-AIT deputy director David J. Keegan (葛天豪) that his faction had maintained a separate communications channel with officials from the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) under the Mainland’s State Council since 1997. However, then President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was never informed about the channel, according to the leaked cable.

According to the diplomatic cable, Hong said the New Tide’s contacts with the Mainland began in 1997 when a group of New Tide legislators visiting the Mainland was approached by working level TAO officials about establishing a dialogue. The two sides met regularly since that time, to exchange views and to discuss specific substantive issues. Hong reportedly claimed that the 2003 Lunar New Year charter flight initiative was an outgrowth of New Tide-Mainland discussions.

In response on Monday, Hong denied everything cited in the diplomatic cable and stressed that “there was no such thing.” Hong said there was no secret communications channel with the other side of the Strait, not to mention meetings with Mainland officials through any such channel.
 

Attachment : none