Wang Jin-pyng Interviewed in the Liberty Times.

Another lovely day of sun and rain here, so I took the afternoon off to go biking and blog. Using Google's translation tool, I translated this long interview in the Liberty Times with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng. Wang is Taiwanese, powerful, a political rival of President Ma, and the unofficial head of the southern legislators with their powerful connections to local patronage and faction networks. In the KMT Chairmanship election between Ma and Wang a couple of years ago, the popular vote supported Ma, while party elites supported Wang. The interview is very interesting for its media outlet (the chief Green media outlet in Taiwan), Wang's call for more legislative oversight of the talks with China, and his insistence on preserving the nation's sovereignty. As a Feiren observed when he alerted me to this, the interview is very Lee Teng-hui-ish in its feel and vocabulary. A few polished excerpts:

Wang Jin-pyng: In the past month, the rapid progress of cross-strait relations has almost exceeded the progress over the last decade. The two sides can create a win-win situation, promote prosperity and development, and create a stable environment of peace. I am not only optimistic, but also recognize this is a positive and meaningful evolution.*

However, .....I must remind, there are three things that must be paid attention to. First, national sovereignty must be ensured. Second, national security must be protected, and third, the rights of the 23 million people must be protected. If we can master these three principles, then no matter what developments occur between the two sides, it will be relatively easy to build a domestic consensus. From the position of the legislature, these three principles should be the basis for carrying out the necessary oversight of the executive branch.

Especially for the first point, all development of cross-strait consultations and negotiations will inevitably involve sovereignty, and both sides of the issue are so complex, so subtle, that negotiators are often unaware of the sacrifice of sovereignty, and don't realize that it has occurred. This is a very serious matter, I have repeatedly emphasized the need to ensure that these issues are addressed from a position of sovereignty.

Further down...

Moreover, the subject of the Legislative Yuan supervision is the Mainland Affairs Council, not the Straits Exchange Foundation. The content of Legislative Yuan supervision includes: how much power should the Mainland Affairs Council grant the SEF? The scope of the topics discussed? Has [the discussion] exceeded the provisions of the law? All of these are included.

Wang cites several examples of US legislators being involved in key international talks, and talks more about legislative oversight. Further down he hits on a key point that Taiwan must build relations with the US and Japan, not simply leaning to one side, which I take to mean Ma's lean toward China.

Wang: at the time when both sides of the Strait are getting along, more attention should be paid to security, for what individual can guarantee peace? If our self-defense forces are insufficient, this is a very dangerous thing. From this perspective, we should improve relations with mainland China. Relations with the United States and Japan should be strengthened, and we should not lean to any one side. How to use the US-Japan security framework to strengthen Taiwan's security, is something that absolutely cannot be ignored.

An informative interview from a powerful man and possible future presidential candidate should Ma stumble.

*fixed translation error here. Originally it had "not" optimistic which was wrong.

[Taiwan]