National Unification Council

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国家统一委员会

Transliterations
Mandarin
- Hanyu Pinyin:	Guójiā tǒngyī wěiyuánhuì
- Tongyong Pinyin:	Guó-jia tǒng-yi wěi-yuán-hueì
- Wade-Giles:	Kuo²-chia¹ t'ung³-i¹ wei³-yüan²-hui⁴

The National Unification Council, established in 1990, was a governmental body of the Republic of China on Taiwan whose aim was to promote unification with the People's Republic of China. It was abolished in early 2006. The council had already been out of operation under the administration of Chen Shui-bian since 2000, who has leant towards Taiwanese independence and opposed Chinese reunification. At the same time, in his "Four Noes and One Without" policy, Chen promised not to abolish formally the Council or the Guidelines for National Unification, in order to allay international concern about his possible moves toward declaring independence.

1 Abolishment
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Abolishment

Following the defeat of Chen Shui-bian's Democratic Progressive Party in the ROC local elections, 2005, however, in his lunar new year speech in 2006 Chen instructed the DPP to begin formal debate on the permanent abolitionment of the National Unification Council and the guidelines set out therein.^[1] On February 27, 2006, Chen formally announced that the council would "cease to function" and its guidelines would "cease to apply".^[2]

At the 228 Incident memorial ceremony held the following day, Chen changed the topic half way through his speech and asked "Is A-bian wrong? Is A-bian wrong? Is A-bian wrong by returning the right of choosing their future to the 23 million people of Taiwan?"^[3] The crowd answered with "No!" and "Go A-bian!". Chen asked the questions in Mandarin, a language spoken in both Taiwan and Mainland China, while the rest of his speech was in Min Nan, a dialect of Chinese spoken in Fujian and Taiwan.^[4]