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TAIPEI: Taiwan officials Sunday dismissed a report that President Ma
Ying Jeou plans to reinstate a council, which recommended policies
on reunification with China, despite a recent thaw in cross-Strait
relations.
The National Unification Council, set up in 1990
by the Kuomintang government, was scrapped in 2006 by then-president
Chen Shui Bian of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party
(DPP).
The council was considered largely symbolic and
had been dormant since Chen was elected in 2000 but his decision
infuriated Beijing, which regards the island as part of its
territory. The move also drew serious concerns from ally Washington.
Chen had defended his decision, saying it was
prompted by Beijing’s persistent military threat and its attempts
to use non-peaceful means to unilaterally change the status quo in
the Taiwan Strait.
The Taipei-based Liberty Times, without
providing sources, said Sunday that the China-friendly Ma
administration was mulling restoring the council to help facilitate
cross-Strait exchanges between the rivals.
Presidential office spokesman Wang Yu Chi,
however, rejected the report as a “rumor.”
“President Ma had made it clear that ‘no
unification, no independence and no use of force’ is the present
guideline for the mainland policy,” he told reporters while
accompanying Ma during a trip to southern Pingtung county.
“There is not any change. We’ve no plan to
reinstate the council.”
During the run up to the March 22 presidential
polls, the Hong Kong-born Ma had repeatedly assured voters that he
would safeguard the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.
China has regarded Taiwan as part of its
territory since their split in 1949 at the end of a civil war.
Cross-Strait ties have improved since Ma took
office on May 20, pledging to improve relations with China that had
hit a nadir while the island was under the rule of the former DPP
government.
The most visible sign yet in the thaw came
Friday when more than 700 Chinese holidaymakers flew to the island
on the first direct regular charter flights in nearly six decades.
-- AFP
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