TAO Responds to DPP Tsai Ing-wen’s Cross-Strait Remarks

 TAO Responds to DPP Tsai Ing-wen’s Cross-Strait Remarks

Sources: All Taipei Newspapers

December 31, 2015

DPP Presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen recently recognized the fact that the two sides of the Strait had held talks in Hong Kong in 1992, but added that a consensus had only been reached to move forward based on the foundation of mutual understanding and seeking commonalities while shelving differences.  Tsai acknowledged the fact that both sides had sat down and had a conversation over different interpretations and wordings at the meeting held in Hong Kong in 1992.   Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光), spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office under Mainland’s State Council, stated on December 30 that the Mainland’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) had not only held talks, but had also reached a consensus, the content of which was “crystal clear.”

Ma went on to say that ARATS and SEF had engaged in consultations with respect to expressing the one China principle during the talks on cross-Strait affairs in 1992.  After a series of talks in Hong Kong in October 1992, and several exchanges of faxes between ARATS and SEF, both sides of the Strait reached the consensus on “respective verbal statements to interpret the one China principle, on which both sides insist,” later named as the “1992 Consensus.”

Ma added that the essence of the “1992 Consensus” was that the Mainland and Taiwan were both part of one China, and the two sides of the Strait were not two separate countries, adding that the fundamental nature of cross-Strait relations had been clearly defined. ARATS and SEF had been authorized by the authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and there existed a “complete historical record of the entire talks” which led to the “1992 Consensus.”

Ma stated that the “1992 Consensus” was not only the common political foundation for cross-Strait consultations, but has been also the common political foundation for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations since 2008.  Ma pointed out that the two sides of the Strait had achieved a series of successes in the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations and have jointly enjoyed a peace dividend due to the “1992 Consensus.”  

Ma stated that the key to maintaining the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations was to recognize the historical facts and the essence of the “1992 Consensus.”  Ma went on to say that without the “1992 Consensus,” cross-Strait communication channels would be impaired, or even severed, and the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations would come to a halt as the “1992 Consensus” was the “fundamental guiding policy” (定海神針) in cross-Strait relations.

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