1992 Consensus basis of peaceful Taiwan ties: mainland
A Chinese mainland spokesperson said Friday that the 1992 Consensus is the political foundation for peaceful cross-Straits ties and urged Taiwan to adhere to the one-China principle.
Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), made the remarks in response to a question regarding the Washington Post’s recent interview with newly elected Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen.
“Only by sticking to the 1992 Consensus and its core meaning – that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to one and the same China – can the two sides ensure the peaceful and stable development of cross-Straits ties,” said Ma, adding that mainstream public opinion on both sides favors maintaining peaceful ties.
According to the Washington Post interview published Thursday, when asked whether Chinese President Xi Jinping has a certain deadline by which he wants Tsai to agree to the 1992 Consensus, the new leader responded, “It isn’t likely that the government of Taiwan will accept a deadline for conditions that are against the will of the people.”
This is the first time that Tsai has made a clear comment on the 1992 Consensus, and the comment fully exposes her pro-independence stance, Zhang Wensheng, a research fellow at Xiamen University, told the Global Times.
Separately, Wu Yongping, deputy director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Tsinghua University, said that Tsai’s comments show her consistent strategy of taking an ambiguous and ambivalent attitude.
Cross-Straits relations have taken a downturn since Tsai’s May inauguration, which the mainland’s TAO regarded as “an incomplete response” because Tsai “did not explicitly recognize the 1992 Consensus and its core implications.”
Ma said that the 1992 Consensus is the political foundation for the establishment of both the communication mechanism between the TAO and Taiwan’s mainland affairs authority and the consultation and negotiation mechanism between the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation.
“Only by recognizing this political foundation that embodies the one-China policy can institutional communication between the two sides continue,” he remarked.