Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council has issued a call for freedom and democracy in China as the country marks 100 years since the founding of its communist party.
The council says that while China has developed economically under communist rule, the country’s single-party system clamps down on freedom and violates human rights.
The council also says that domestically, the country is becoming more autocratic in the name of a false “ethnic renaissance”, and that the government is interfering more in the economy, pushing China’s people out.
On the international stage, meanwhile, the council says that China is trying to interfere in the international order and has shown its ambition to attain global hegemony, making it a threat to the region and global democracy.
The council says that freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law are core Taiwanese values. It says that cross-strait ties are based on mutual respect and goodwill.
It also says that Taiwan’s people have long since rejected Beijing’s unilateral “one China policy” and the “1992 Consensus”. Under the 1992 Consensus, Taipei and Beijing had agreed that both sides belong to “one China”, while leaving the definition of “one China” ambiguous.
The council says that Taiwan’s determination to defend its sovereignty and democracy and ensure peace in the Taiwan Strait remains unchanged. It says that China can only improve cross-strait interaction by dropping its political framework and military threats and taking Taiwan’s proposals of “peace, equality, democracy, and dialogue” seriously.
