MARCH 2012

DEMOCRACY & PROGRESS

DPP counties, cities issue joint meeting statement on US beef containing ractopamine
On March 12, DPP Acting Chair Chen Chu presided over a meeting held in Kaohsiung City to discuss the issue of allowing US beef containing ractopamine with DPP county governors and city mayors and representatives from the DPPs Legislative Caucus. Present in the meeting were Yilan County Governor Lin Tsung-hsien; Yunlin County Governor Su Chih-fen; Chiayi County Governor Chang Huakuan; Tainan City Mayor Lai Ching-teh; and Pintung County Governor Tsao Chi-hung. Legislative Convener Ker Chien-ming, Executive Director Pang Meng-an and Chief Secretary Chen Ting-fei participated in the meeting to represent the DPPs Legislative Caucus. A statement was issued with Three Action Plans and Four Demands to the Ma Administration. The statement reads: In regards to the plans of President Mas administration to open beef imports with ractopamine, the DPPs governing counties and cities jointly expresses strong protest and condemnation. We believe that the KMT government is ignoring professional research and public opinion, and it is forcing the people to face unknown health risks. The statement is translated below: Three Action Plans:

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 1. Execute the Local Inspection Plan where each county and city will conduct their own ractopamine inspections persisting in a zerotolerance policy. 2. Implement the Self-Administration Plan where each county and city will promote businesses to establish an alliance of no-ractopamine products. In addition, a certification system will be implemented in which labels with product origin will be required, and schools and other public departments will be synchronized to stop usage of products with ractopamine. 3. Promote the Confident Consumption Plan that will certify ecological and local products, giving consumers confidence to buy safe products. Four Demands 1. We demand the Legislative Yuan to persist on a zero-tolerance policy towards ractopamine and immediately pass the Act Governing Food Sanitation. We also urge the public to express their dissatisfaction regarding the ractopamine policy to the legislative representatives in their districts.

MARCH 2012 2. Concerning the loopholes in the governments policy of three management and five cards measures, we demand the government to strengthen inspections on imported meat and responsibly manage the duty of inspections, discontinuing any allowance of ractopamine into the market. 3. Ensuring public health should be a bipartisan issue. We appeal all other counties and cities to protect the peoples health and take a stand in refusing the allowance of ractopamine. We also call upon all DPP representatives in county and city governments to urge local governments to strengthen the management of food safety. 4. Responding to the damages caused by the ractopamine issue to the local livestock industries, we urge the Executive Yuan to start immediately counseling, damage repair and compensation measures.

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MARCH 2012

DPP Central Standing Committee issues statement regarding one country, two areas
During a recent meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, KMTs Former Chairman Wu Pohhsiung, at the direction of President Ma Ying-jeou, proposed the idea of one country, two areas. On March 28, the DPP issued a Central Standing Committee approved statement regarding the KMTs one country, two areas position. Below are the DPPs standpoints regarding this subject: 1. Taiwan is an independent, sovereign country and does not belong to the Peoples Republic of China. The DPP's consistent stand regarding the sovereignty of Taiwan is that any move towards changing the status quo must go through a referendum by all the people of Taiwan. This also represents the majority consensus of the Taiwan public. The fact that Taiwan is the ROC, and the ROC is Taiwan clearly shows that Taiwans sovereignty is not a negotiable issue. In addition, neither any individual figure nor political party can use our sovereignty as a bargaining chip. 2. Everyone knows that the international community understands One China to be the PRC. When President Ma Ying-jeou advocates the position two sides belong to One China and issues the idea of one country, two areas, in the eyes of the international community, he appears to be recognizing and guaranteeing that Taiwan is an area of the PRC. From the perspective of the international community, this puts Taiwan at a disadvantage, moving other countries to believe that Taiwan is part of China, and that any matters related to Taiwan must seek Chinese approval. This degrades our countrys sovereignty and lessens Taiwans international space. 3. President Ma Ying-jeou has posited the idea of one country, two areas, a position in direct contradiction to his oft-repeated no unifica tion, no independence and preserving the status quo". This new position contradicts his three nos pledge and is a change in the status quo as regards Taiwan's territorial boundary and sovereignty. The international community will be under the impression that, with this KMT government position, Taiwan no longer insists in preserving its sovereign and independent status, and is gradually moving Taiwan towards unification with China. President Mas actions push Taiwan to only one option, unification, and deprives the Taiwanese people of their right to determine their own future. 4. One country, two areas involves our sovereignty and cross strait position. However, Taiwans government officials responsible for national security and cross strait affairs, such as National Security Bureau (NSB) DirectorGeneral Tsai Der-sheng and Mainland Affairs Council Minister Lai Shin-yuan, expressed no knowledge of this policy. When it comes to the important topic of national security, the Ma administration employs a black-box strategy to avoid democratic supervision and civic dialogue, and when facing public scrutiny, officials are afraid to speak in order to escape responsibility. President Ma has made arbitrary and aggressive moves in regards to cross strait issues, moves that have caused harm to Taiwans democracy. The DPP strongly appeals to President Ma to publicly account for his decision-making process and apologize to the public. President Ma must openly withdraw the idea of one country, two areas. If President Ma fails to admit his mistakes and continues to be unresponsive, the DPP will solemnly fulfill its responsibility to protect our national sovereignty, democracy and freedom. The DPP does not exclude using all necessary means to express the peoples dissatisfaction and anger towards the bad performance of President Mas Administration. PAGE 3

MARCH 2012

DPP poll shows 60% of Taiwanese people do not approve one country, two areas
The DPP conducted a poll between March 26th and 27th, which showed that 60% of the Taiwanese population do not approve of one country, two areas. From the poll respondents, about 78% believed that Taiwan and China are two separate countries, and 68.3% considered that the international communitys belief of One China refers to the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). The DPP poll also showed that 61.6% of the respondents agreed that one country, two areas degrades national sovereignty . Additionally, 81.2% agreed to the DPPs Resolution regarding Taiwans Future stating that, Taiwan is an independent, sovereign country and any change in the status quo must go through a referendum by the entire people of Taiwan. The poll used a sampling number of 1,333 respondents over the age of 20 years old with voting rights. There was a sampling error of 2.73% under a 95% confidence rate. In the press conference on March 29th, DPP Spokesperson Luo Chih-cheng said it was clear from this poll that the majority public in Taiwan knew about President Ma Ying-jeous one country, two areas idea. However, the poll also showed that the majority did not identify with President Ma in this notion and believed that it greatly damages Taiwans sovereignty. Spokesperson Luo urged the Ma Administration to apologize to the public for a failed policy and discontinue employing this kind of saying. The questions and results of the DPP poll are shown below:

1. Last week, in a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, KMT Former Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung issued the saying one country, two areas. Do you know about this development? Yes Overall Pan-Green Pan-Blue Independent 60.8% 67.4% 62% 49.8% No 39.2% 32.6% 38% 50.2%

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MARCH 2012 2. Wu Poh-hsiung explained that the ROC Constitution originally embraced the One China Principle and its articles contain the two areas notion, therefore, cross strait affairs involves one country, two areas. Do you agree with the saying one country, two areas? Absolutely Agree 10.8% Overall Pan-Green Pan-Blue Independent 28.1% 5.5% 55.2% 23.1% Somewhat Agree 17.3% Somewhat Disagree 19.2% 59.7% 89.1% 34.7% 58.9% 5.4% 10% 18% Absolutely Disagree 40.6% No Opinion 12.1%

3. Hu Jintao has said, Although both sides have not been unified, Chinese territory and sovereignty have not split. The reality of the Mainland and Taiwan belonging to one China has not changed. Do you agree with this saying? Absolutely Agree 7.2% Overall Pan-Green Pan-Blue Independent 23.7% 7.2% 43.8% 21.4% Somewhat Agree 16.5% Somewhat Disagree 20.6% 67.3% 89.5% 50% 64.2% 3.3% 6.2% 14.4% Absolutely Disagree 46.7% No Opinion 9%

4. Do you believe that Taiwan and the Mainland are one country? Yes Overall Pan-Green Pan-Blue Independent 17.5% 4.5% 32.1% 17.8% No 77.9% 93.6% 65.8% 74.5% No Opinion 4.5% 1.9% 2.2% 7.8%

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 5. Do you think that the international community believes One China refers to ROC or the PRC? ROC Overall Pan-Green Pan-Blue Independent 21.8% 22.8% 22.1% 20.9% PRC 68.3% 70.7% 70.3% 66.6% No Opinion 9.9% 6.5% 7.7% 12.6%

MARCH 2012

6. Some believe that one country, two areas denigrate the countrys sovereignty. Do you agree? Absolutely Agree 42.5% Overall Pan-Green Pan-Blue Independent 61.6% 85.4% 43% 57.5% Somewhat Agree 19.1% Somewhat Disagree 15.7% 29.5% 11.2% 51.3% 25.9% 3.3% 5.7% 16.5% Absolutely Disagree 13.8% No Opinion 8.9%

7. The DPPs Resolution Regarding Taiwans Future says, Taiwan is an independent and sovereign country. Any change in the status quo must go through a referendum by the entire people of Taiwan. Do you agree with this saying? Absolutely Agree 55.6% Overall Pan-Green Pan-Blue Independent 81.2% 95.9% 72.8% 75.1% Somewhat Agree 25.6% Somewhat Disagree 5.4% 12.6% 2.4% 22.5% 14.9% 1.7% 4.7% 9.9% Absolutely Disagree 7.2% No Opinion 6.2%

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MARCH 2012

DPP Acting Chair Chen Chu visits Legislative Yuan

On March 14, DPP Acting Chair Chen Chu visited the DPPs Legislative Caucus, exchanging views with DPP legislators on the issue of US beef containing ractopamine. Acting Chair Chen said this was the first time she has visited the DPPs Legislative Caucus since taking her role as acting chair, and the purpose of her visit was to give encouragement to the DPP legislative team for their earnest professionalism. The DPP has increased to 40 seats in this legislative session, which encompasses a third of our 113-seat legislature, she said. In many important topics, we must stand closer to the people and take a serious approach in supervising the ruling party. I have full faith that they will perform exceedingly and fulfill all public expectations. Acting Chair Chen also encouraged all DPP legislators in the Public Health Subcommittee to PAGE 7

DEMOCRACY & PROGRESS

PUBLISHED BY: Department of International Aairs Democratic Progressive Party 9F, No. 30, Pei-Ping East Road, Taipei, Taiwan Tel: 886-2-2392-9989 ext. 306 Fax: 886-2-2393-0342 Email: foreign@dpp.org.tw Website: http://www.dpp.org.tw

use their professionalism and focus on the peoples health as priority to promote the passage of the Act Governing Food Sanitation. She emphasized that the DPP strongly believes that the peoples health should be a bipartisan issue, and she said the DPP hopes to cooperate with other political parties regarding the improvement of dialogue and expertise regarding public health. In line with the DPPs commitment to resolve the issues concerning livestock farmers, the Central Standing Committee Meeting, which is usually held at the DPP Headquarters, was held instead in Yunlin County on March 21. Acting Chair Chen Chu, accompanied by Yunlin County Governor Su Chih-fen, visited a local pig farm. The objective of this trip was to raise awareness on the safety of local livestock farming methods, supporting pig farmers who have suffered great damage from the ractompanime scandal.