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Taiwan's Chen Buoyed by Vote on Special Panel
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"We have examined Hu Jintao's words, and we saw nothing new at all," Wu said. "China is still insisting on preconditions to dwarf Taiwan and make it a locality."
But Wu said his government was "not fully frustrated yet" and believed that China was still considering a more ambiguous proposal made by Chen to resume negotiations "on the basis of the results achieved in the 1992 Hong Kong talks," a reference to the meeting in which Chinese and Taiwanese officials first succeeded in opening a formal dialogue.
Voters cast ballots for party lists of delegates to an ad hoc National Assembly that will consider constitutional amendments approved by the island's legislature last year. Both Chen's party and the opposition Nationalist Party have endorsed the amendments, and with more than 81 percent of the vote between them, the changes are set to be approved in a session scheduled to begin May 31.
"With more than half of the votes cast in favor of constitutional reform, this is a victory for democracy, a victory for reform and a victory for Taiwan," Chen said in a statement. Soong's party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union opposed the amendments.
China has warned that changes to Taiwan's constitution could move the self-governing island of 23 million people closer to formal independence, a result that it has vowed to prevent by military force if necessary. But it is expected to grudgingly accept the proposed amendments because they do not touch upon issues of sovereignty, such as the island's name, flag or national anthem.
Instead, the amendments will cut the size of Taiwan's legislature in half, adopt new election rules that favor larger political parties, eliminate the National Assembly and require the use of referendums to approve all future changes to the constitution.
Chen's party has long supported the use of referendums in Taiwan as a way for the public to vote on whether the island should unite with China or declare independence. The Nationalists agreed to the referendum clause because it sets a high bar for passage, 50 percent of the eligible electorate.
Wu said the Chinese government might be upset by the changes but had no reason to be alarmed. "It has nothing to do with independence," he said. "China should look at this as one more step in the consolidation of Taiwan's democracy. We will not touch on areas related to sovereignty."
Culpan reported from Taipei.
