Ma and Tsai aides to discuss transition Friday
Yuan-ming Chao
Aides representing the Ma administration and the incoming Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government of president-elect Tsai Ing-wen are slated to meet to discuss the transition of power this Friday, a presidential spokesperson announced Monday (February 15).
Presidential Office Secretary General Tseng Yung-chuan will meet with DPP secretary general Joseph Wu on February 19 at the Taipei Guest House, according to Presidential Office spokeswoman Ma Wei-kuo.
The Friday meeting will be the first between Ma and Tsai’s political teams. Details on the meeting were discussed over telephone between Tseng and DPP spokesman Lin Hsi-yao. A preparatory meeting between both sides will take place Tuesday afternoon.
Ma stated that the president had suggested that the two teams meet following a briefing on reconstruction efforts following the February 6 earthquake that devastated parts of Tainan city. Relations between the central government and the soon-to-be ruling DPP have improved over cooperation following the devastating earthquake which killed 116.
No ‘following’ of Ma: DPP
Meanwhile, DPP spokesman Wang Min-sheng stated there was no change to her proposed policies toward mainland China. His response came as local scholars reasoned in the past few days that Tsai’s cross-strait policies would “follow” those of the Ma administration’s. In a press release, Wang reiterated that Tsai “insists on following popular support and respecting the principles of democracy” in differentiating its policies with the current government.
“We will not follow existing practice,” he said.
He added that Tsai’s positions on mainland China have been made clear since her pre-election tour of the United States, in which she has insisted that “maintaining the status quo” meant building upon two decades worth of negotiations and exchanges and that future development between both sides of the Taiwan Strait would be conducted under the constitutional framework of the R.O.C.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asia Susan Thornton stated last Thursday at a congressional hearing that Tsai would likely continue to push cross-strait relations in the same direction as President Ma Ying-jeou.
Cross-strait relations “that evade popular support and democracy cannot be maintained for long and could be detrimental to popular sentiment,” Wang added.
Tsai will be sworn in as the president of the Republic of China on May 20.