'China Affairs Committee' negative to DPP

Taiwan's opposition party Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Wednesday established the "China Affairs Committee" to deal with issues concerning the Chinese mainland.

Taiwan local media said the name of the committee showed that the DPP does not give up the so-called principle of "one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait," and the move will have negative effect on the transformation of the party.

The decision of the establishment was made after the party's Central Executive Committee held a meeting on Wednesday afternoon, passing the key points for the establishment of the committee.

Su Tseng-chang, the party chair, became the convener of the committee. He admitted that a consensus cannot be reached on some issues of the establishment of the committee, according to a press release of the DPP.

There once were different opinions on the name of the committee inside the DPP, as some party figures thought it should be named as the "Mainland Affairs Committee" or the "Cross-Strait Affairs Committee."

Taiwan's Want Daily said in a commentary on Wednesday that the name has decided the positioning of the DPP policy. The founding of the "China Affairs Committee" showed the party is willing to face up to the changes of the global political and economic situation, and the qualitative change of the cross-Strait relations.

However, the commentary urged the DPP to give up hostility, and show its goodwill and sincerity for contacts.

Taiwan's China Times said on Wednesday in a commentary that "China Affairs" implied the so-called policy of "one country on each side of the Strait," adding that the DPP should not make obstacles to itself unless it will continue to confront with the mainland.

Taiwan's United Daily News said on Thursday the public would have expected the newly-founded committee had led the great change of the DPP policy toward the Chinese mainland. However, the establishment of the committee has nothing new, as the key points of the committee made concessions to the pro-independence forces.

China Times said the DPP's hostility toward the mainland has prevented itself from understanding the Chinese mainland, not to mention making appropriate policy. The recently concluded 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has made the "1992 Consensus" as an important political basis for peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

In November 1992, the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation reached the consensus during talks on routine affairs that each of the two organizations verbally acknowledges that "both sides of the Taiwan Straits adhere to the one-China principle."

The DPP should take a pragmatic attitude toward the consensus and make relevant responses to it, said the commentary, adding that the DPP and the CPC cannot make exchanges if the DPP does not recognize the 1992 Consensus, China Times said.

If the DPP replaces the 'China Affairs Committee' with the 'Mainland Affairs Committee,' and recognizes the 1992 Consensus, it will be conducive to the cross-Strait interaction, and also the DPP's political campaigns, as well as the improvement of Taiwan people's livelihood, China Times said.