TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — KMT official and Chinese spouse He Ying-lu (何鷹鷺) withdrew from the party on Wednesday, citing what she described as the party’s ambiguous stance on cross-strait relations.
He criticized the party for “deliberately muddying the waters” when referencing the “Taiwan area,” pointing to past remarks by KMT Vice Chair Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑), per ETtoday. She argued the party should clearly state whether the term refers to the Taiwan area under the Republic of China or the People’s Republic of China.
He also said the party failed to resolve her suspension, which stemmed from her recent pro-unification comments, during a meeting held that day.
Her suspension followed a video she posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, in which she wore a Mao Zedong T-shirt and called for unification, per Liberty Times. In the same video, she criticized former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), calling him “the most useless”, per ETtoday.
Amid her appeal of the suspension, Taoyuan City Councilor and retired Army General Yu Pei-chen (于北辰) suggested that He’s background may have influenced KMT Chair Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) to reconsider the disciplinary action, per UDN. The KMT then clarified that He’s suspension would not take effect until the appeals process concludes.
In another Douyin post, He quoted Cheng as saying, “We are Taiwanese and Chinese at the same time because we are Chinese under the Constitution,” per SETN.
Hsiao’s earlier comments on the “Taiwan area” may refer to Article 11 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China, which distinguishes between the “mainland area” and the “free area.”
Former National Quemoy University Professor Kao Huei (高輝) wrote in a “2012 Prospects and Exploration” article that the terms refer to legal territories rather than political arrangements, arguing that “one nation, two areas” is a legal phrasing derived from the Constitution. Past statements from the Mainland Affairs Council under former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) echoed this interpretation.
However, the current DPP administration does not accept this framework. Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) has rejected “one nation, two areas” as unconstitutional, and Mainland Affairs Council Spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) has said the government considers “one nation, two systems” to be political language, not a constitutional principle, per CNA.
Former Mainland Affairs Council Minister Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in 2002 that because the legal basis for the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area — the framework known as “one nation, two areas” — is grounded in the Constitution, amending it would require constitutional changes and therefore was not advisable, per the Mainland Affairs Council website.
