Experts: Mainland’s new Taiwan measures show responsibility

The Chinese mainland’s new measures to increase exchanges with counties in Taiwan, and remarks made by top political adviser Yu Zhengsheng, show a strong sense of responsibility, experts from across the Taiwan Straits said.

“The refusal by Taiwan’s current Democratic Progressive Party administration to recognize the 1992 Consensus has led to an impasse and even regression of relations across the Straits, impairing the interests of compatriots from both sides,” said Liu Guoshen, director of the Taiwan Research Institute at Xiamen University.

The delegation of officials from New Taipei City and seven island counties, which came to Beijing as part of a mainland visit, expressed hope of continuing the peaceful cross-Straits development and win-win cooperation of the past eight years based on the 1992 Consensus, which affirms that both sides of the Straits belong to one China.

Meeting with the delegation on Sunday, Yu stressed that the mainland will not change its policy toward Taiwan, including adherence to the 1992 Consensus, opposition to “Taiwan independence”, and promotion of crossStraits exchanges and cooperation.

Zhang Guanhua, deputy director of the Beijing-based Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Yu’s remarks demonstrate the mainland’s unswerving stance on matters of principle and its resolution and sincerity in boosting the welfare of people from both sides.

Also on Sunday, the mainland announced eight measures to promote exchanges with the areas represented in the Taiwan delegation.

Yang Kai-huang, a crossStraits relations expert at Taiwan-based Ming Chuan University, regarded the measures as “tangible and pragmatic”.

“The newly unveiled measures show the mainland’s concern and goodwill toward the people in Taiwan and the hope of remedying the regression of cross-Straits relations as soon as possible,” Yang said.

Both Yu’s remarks and the new measures once again demonstrated that the 1992 Consensus is the anchor of cross-Straits ties, he said.