KMT Congress Includes Cross-Strait Peace Agreement in New Party Platform

 KMT Congress Includes Cross-Strait Peace Agreement in New Party Platform

 Sources: All Taipei newspapers

 September 5, 2016

The KMT held the fourth session of its 19^th National Party Congress on September 4, in which it adopted a new plank to “study the possibility of reaching a peace agreement across the Taiwan Strait” in its new party platform. 

The general section of the KMT’s party platform stated that former President Ma Ying-jeou had initiated consultations and deepened interactions across the Taiwan Strait on the basis of the “1992 Consensus/one China, different interpretations.” In the sub-section on cross-Strait relations, the party platform noted, “The KMT will deepen ‘the 1992 Consensus’ on the foundation of the Republic of China Constitution, and actively study the possibility of reaching a peace agreement to end the cross-Strait state of hostilities and play a role in promoting cross-Strait peace.” 

However, the fact that the new party platform included the “1992 Consensus” but omitted “one China, different interpretations” has raised some concerns. Former Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) stated that the “1992 Consensus” could not be separated from the phrase “One China, different interpretations” as the latter precisely described the meaning of the term. 

In addition, the KMT National Party Congress also passed an amendment to the party charter stipulating that directors of local party chapters at all levels should be directly elected by party members with the plan to be implemented within one year. 

The Tsai Ing-wen administration is currently pursuing to “recover” the KMT’s party assets after the Legislative Yuan passed “The Statute Governing Ill-gotten Assets of Political Parties and their Affiliated Organizations” on July 25, which would obviously have a great impact on KMT retirees. The KMT party central already decided to suspend monthly pension payments and the interest payments on lump sum pensions now deposited in bank accounts receiving a preferential interest rate calculated at 18% per annum for its retired workers, affecting over a thousand ex-KMT party workers.

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