Taiwan's constitutional standoff between the ruling and opposition parties has a new proposal for resolution, but ruling-party lawmakers have already drawn a red line, making a breakthrough unlikely in the short term.

• Former DPP chairman Hsu Hsin-liang suggested emulating the cooperative experience of the National Affairs Conference of the 1990s, gradually completing the constitutional system through negotiation.
• He said the premier's use of the countersignature power to resist resolutions passed by the Legislative Yuan runs counter to constitutional principles, but that the bills pushed by the opposition were themselves unconstitutional to begin with, creating a deadlock of "unconstitutionality against unconstitutionality."
• Chuang Jui-hsiung, secretary-general of the DPP's Legislative Yuan caucus, responded that the party respects this direction, saying a national affairs conference could help reduce confrontation and build mutual trust.
• But he drew a boundary: a national affairs conference cannot create a constitution, nor can it replace the Constitutional Court, and using constitutional issues as bargaining chips would be very difficult.

Outlook: The ruling and opposition parties may use a national affairs conference to discuss political disputes, but disagreements over constitutional interpretation will still return to the Constitutional Court, and the confrontation will not end any time soon.