Did the authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait previously reach a consensus regarding the "one-China principle"? This major question has incited a fierce dispute between the governments on either side of the Taiwan Sea during the last year. Furthermore, the problem has already spread to Taiwan's domestic political scene, and the confrontations there between supporters of each side are no less passionate than those between Taiwan and mainland China.
Enticing the Republic of China to bring itself to an end:
Since October of 1949, when the Chinese Communist Party established the People's Republic of China (PRC) in mainland China and the KMT's Republic of China (ROC) retreated to Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu, it has been 50 years that the two Chinese regimes have separately ruled opposite sides of the Taiwan Strait. Based on my experience working on Taiwan affairs since 1947, the CCP's original bringing forth of this "one China" mantra was a blatant political ploy to entice the ROC to bring itself to an end, given that it couldn't be thoroughly eradicated by military action. Therefore the current struggle between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait over the "one China" problem actually relates to a major question: the survival of the ROC.
So is it really the case, as the CCP authorities in Beijing insist, that, "a consensus has been reached already"?
To insist on this consensus, the CCP authorities have distorted history to mislead the KMT's middle-aged generation and other political parties in Taiwan. CCP officials often say, "The old leaders among your authorities in Taiwan were also unswerving in their insistence on `one China' and opposition to `two Chinas.' This is a position reached early on that is consistent with the viewpoint of our leaders." They use this to prove a historical basis for the claim that their so-called "1992 meeting between Wang Daohan (
Chiang Kai-shek opposed "two Chinas":
Quite right. In Feb. 1955, then-KMT chairman Chiang Kai-shek (
However, several days later, Chiang Kai-shek held a press conference for local and foreign reporters, once again criticizing the UN's cease-fire proposal. First and foremost, he solemnly declared that there is only one China, and it is the ROC, saying the KMT would never relinquish its right to retake the mainland. From this we see that Chiang Kai-shek's opposition to "two Chinas" was precisely his insistence that "one China" is the ROC. He refuted the legal status of communist China in the mainland and didn't come to any "consensus" with the communist government that the PRC was "one China."
Taiwan returned
In an internal discussion that took place in October of 1959, Mao did in fact also say the following: "At the time of World War II, China was one of the allied nations. According to the stipulations of the Cairo conference attended by Churchill, Roosevelt, and Chiang Kai-shek, Taiwan was returned to China from Japanese control. Taiwan belonged to China in the first place. Japan temporarily occupied it. After the Japanese lost, it was returned to China. After Chiang Kai-shek lost (author's note: referring to the civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists in 1949), he ran to Taiwan and established a government there. All over the world there are still many countries that have diplomatic relations with the authorities in Taiwan. We oppose `two Chinas.' Chiang Kai-shek also opposes `two Chinas.' We have points on which we agree."
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