Frank Wu takes office as SEF chairman

Taipei, Nov. 4 (CNA) Former Control Yuan member Frank Wu (吳豊山) assumed the chairmanship of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) on Monday, hours after he was elected to the post by the SEF board of directors and supervisors.

In an acceptance speech, Wu said he hoped that the SEF's Chinese counterpart -- the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) -- would show reciprocal goodwill and work collaboratively to improve bilateral relations.

The SEF is a semi-official organization tasked by Taiwan's government to handle technical matters involving China.

Wu said that cross-strait affairs are complex and form a major part of the governments' policies, including their military policies.

In the 75 years that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have been governed separately, Taiwan has had eight presidents, Wu noted.

"Although the cross-strait policies of the presidents have differed somewhat, they all maintained a firm stance on defending Taiwan and safeguarding the sovereignty and independence of the Republic of China (Taiwan)," he said.

On the other side, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has repeatedly emphasized that he hopes for peaceful development across the strait, Wu said.

It means that the top leaders of China and Taiwan believe that peaceful development and the pursuit of common prosperity are the best guarantees of the well being of the people on both sides of the strait, Wu said.

He suggested that the ARATS work with the SEF to build goodwill, "to bid farewell to the darkness, and welcome a bright future" in bilateral relations.

Noting that he was an SEF board member in the early years after its establishment in 1990, Wu said he continued to pay close attention to cross-strait affairs in the following 20-30 years and sometimes assisted the government in that area.

On Oct. 18 this year, he was named by the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan's top government agency in charge of cross-strait affairs, to take over as SEF chairman.

The organization had been led by acting SEF Chairman Rock Hsu (許勝雄), who took over on an acting basis when former SEF Chairman Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) resigned in July after being charged in a corruption case related to his tenure as Taoyuan mayor.

According to the SEF website, Wu worked for the Independence Evening Post from 1968 to 1994, serving successively as its editor-in-chief and president for 18 years.

He was twice elected to the National Assembly and chaired the Public Television Service from 1998 to 2004. He served as minister without portfolio in the Executive Yuan from 2006 to 2007 and as a member of the Control Yuan from 2008 to 2014.