Diplomats Discuss Future Of Taiwan

The citizens of Taiwan should determine if that country is reunited with the People's Republic of China or remains independent, said Ming-min Peng, president of the Pacific Council for Democracy, in a forum held last night.

Peng, the featured speaker in a panel discussion entitled "Taiwan Tangle," addressed a crowd of about 150 in the Kennedy School of Government.

Both the communist People's Republic of China and the nationalist government of Taiwan claim to be the true government of all the Chinese people. Peng said the current Taiwanese government should allow the people to choose whether they wish to remain independent or be unified with the mainland.

"For too long those people have been excluded from the for- mation of basic national policy," he said. "If we are really looking for a peaceful, democratic, fair solution, the wish and aspiration of the people who live there should be respected and taken seriously."

Because a vast majority of Taiwan's inhabitants are ethnically Chinese, and because China used to control Taiwan, the People's Republic claims to have the right to govern the country.

But Peng said communist China has no more legitimate claim to Taiwan than Saddam Hussein has to Kuwait, adding that Taiwan's claim to be the true government of all China is a "fiction and a myth.