NUC and NUG cease to function: Chen

This article was written by Shih Ying-ying and published by the Taiwan Journal on March 3, 2006.

President Chen Shui-bian recently announced his decision that the National Unification Council and the National Unification Guidelines will "cease to function". The council was set up in 1990. It is an ad hoc committee under the Presidential Office and is in charge of overseeing steps toward an eventual merger of China and Taiwan. The guidelines define unification as a national goal.

Chen said that the decision was made to preserve "Taiwan's freedom, democracy, human rights and the peaceful status quo" and to "safeguard the right and free will to choose" of the 23 million Taiwanese people. He stressed that although the National Unification Council and the National Unification Guidelines would cease to function, it does not involve change the status quo. Instead, the decision is based on the "democratic principle of respecting the people's right to determine their own future".

Chen called on China to enter into dialogue with Taiwan in an effort to build a mechanism for interaction and exchanges through which trust can be increased, differences settled and problems solved. In Chen's view, China's military build-up and its passage of the so-called "anti-secession law" in March 2005 constitute attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.