New | Nominee to head Taiwan’s judiciary inflames questions on Tsai’s endgame
Taipei moves to soothe speculation, saying Hsu Tzong-li expressing ‘personal opinion’
Taipei has moved to quell speculation the leadership might resort to confrontational tactics with Beijing after a candidate for the head of the judiciary authority said cross-strait ties were a “special state-to-state” relationship.
The remarks, by Hsu Tzong-li, echo the controversial “state-to-state” theory espoused by former president Lee Teng-hui in 1999 and have sparked questions over whether Hsu would push for a revision of the constitution to make Taiwan officially independent.
Hsu has been nominated by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to serve as chief justice of the Judicial Yuan. At a confirmation hearing, Hsu was asked by Kuomintang legislator Wang Yu-min about an article Hsu wrote in 1996 in which he said the Republic of China, as Taiwan is formally known, was “factually and legally independent from all other nations, including the People’s Republic of China”.
Hsu said he believed cross-strait ties were a “special state-to-state” relationship, akin to that between the former East and West Germany.
The sovereignty of the ROC did not extend to all of China, he said. “We elect our own parliament, and our parliamentarians as well as president are elected by the 23 million people in Taiwan,” Hsu said in a video clip of Thursday’s confirmation hearing released by the legislature.
