Kuomintang leader: "Only democracy in China can bring reunification".
Ma Ying-jeou, opposition leader and Taipei mayor, said "if reunification is to be an option, Beijing must develop a democratic political system, like ours".
London (AsiaNews/Agencies) China "should embrace full political and economic democracy" before Taiwan "can consider reunification", Ma Ying-jeou said yesterday. The leader of Kuomintang (the island's largest opposition party) and mayor of Taipei was giving a speech at the London School of Economics.
"We do not rule out the option of eventual reunification between Taiwan and mainland China if the overall conditions across the Strait are ripe: the development in mainland China of concepts of political democracy, economic prosperity and social well-being which are congruent with those of Taiwan," he said.
The island which is not recognized as a sovereign state by Great Britain broke away from mainland China in 1949 at the end of civil war. Beijing considers Taiwan as a "rebel province" while Taipei rules with "de facto independence". Beyond shared cultural, historical and linguistic ties, Taipei and Beijing are united by commerce: their trade exchange reaches around 71 billion US dollars per year.
"Until China's democratic development, we prefer to maintain the status quo and not to consider a timetable for unification, which in any case would have to be submitted to popular vote," added Ma.
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