Chen stated in his concluding remarks at the conference that the decision was made to preserve “Taiwan's freedom, democracy, human rights and the peaceful status quo” and to “safeguard the right and free will to choose of the 23 million Taiwan people”. Chen stressed in the same speech that “ceasing the function” of the NUC and “ceasing application” of the NUG do not involve changing the status quo but are “based on the democratic principle of respecting the people's right to determine their own future”. He also called on China to enter into dialogue with Taiwan's government in an effort to build a mechanism for interaction and exchanges through which trust can be increased, differences settled and problems solved.

Citing China's military build-up and its passage of a so-called “anti-secession law” last March, Chen said such continued military threats against Taiwan constitute attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and thereby violate his clearly enunciated conditions for not altering the status of the NUC and NUG.

Formulated in 1990 and 1991 respectively (during former President Lee Teng-hui’s first term, the council and guidelines declare that cross-strait unification should be pursued through peaceful and democratic means. The guidelines set a three-phase agenda for ultimate integration between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, while the NUC was the body set up to achieve that goal.

In reality, however, the NUC has not convened since April 1999. “It doesn’t even have enough money to subscribe to a newspaper”, said Joseph Wu, Chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, referring to the fact that the council’s operating budget has been reduced to a mere US$31 per annum ever since the opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan slashed the original budget of US$187,000 in 2003.

Secretary-General of the National Security Council, Chiou I-jen, maintained that Taiwan has offered numerous olive branches to China since Chen took office in 2000, but that what Taiwan has received in return is China’s continued military build-up and passage of the “anti-secession law”. Chiou noted that the number of Chinese missiles deployed against Taiwan has seen a four-fold growth over the past five years. “China’s gradual unilateral destruction of the status quo does not contribute to the region’s stability or security”, Chiou said. He stressed that Taiwan is not trying to change the status quo, nor will it let the status quo be changed by China.

President Chen himself, in his Concluding Remarks at the National Security Conference, stated that ceasing the function of the NUC is an action “based solely on the democratic principle of respecting the people’s right to determine their own future”. He continued, saying that, as long as the principle of democracy is honoured and the free will of Taiwan’s 23 million people to choose their own path is respected, the Taiwanese government would not exclude any possible form of future development of cross-strait relations. President Chen was, however, adamant that no one set preconditions or goals regarding the people’s right to choose.

In his speech, President Chen highlighted the important of developing positive cross-strait relations, and that, in order to achieve this, both sides must “actively seek to establish an interactive and effective mechanism of exchange based in government-to-government negotiation and dialogue”. He stressed that, in this manner, parties can work to “eliminate differences, build mutual trust and resolve problems”.

He did note, however, that on many occasions China has “unilaterally curved Taiwan’s international space and involvement in the world”, thereby violating the “universal values of freedom, democracy and human rights”, and also adversely affecting the “goodwill between the peoples of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait”. He concluded that, in order to ensure Taiwan’s national security and prevent the military balance in the Taiwan Strait from tilting too much in China’s favour, Taiwan will “actively fortify its determination and ability to defend itself”. President Chen remarked that, by doing so, Taiwan would be helping to “protect the status quo, Taiwan’s democracy, freedom and peace from being unilaterally altered”.