President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) called an international press conference yesterday to reaffirm what he said was the importance of the so-called “1992 consensus” in maintaining cross-strait peace, after the opposition parties denied him the chance to report to the legislature on his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
The president reiterated at the press conference that the meeting was a success because it built a bridge between the two sides and provides a model for future interaction.
“The meeting has also received wide coverage in the foreign media; as of today there were nearly 1,000 pieces of foreign reporting on the meeting,” Ma said.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
The world in general has voiced its praise over the meeting, Ma said.
“Indonesia, for example, even offered to host the next cross-strait leaders’ meeting,” he said.
Ma cited a Mainland Affairs Council poll, which found that more than 60 percent of the public support the Ma-Xi meeting, adding that the number of people who agree that the “China” in “one China, different interpretations” is the Republic of China [ROC] also hit a record high.
When asked why he failed to mention the “different interpretations” part of the “1992 consensus” during the part of the meeting that was public, the president said it was because he was citing the historical event in 1992 when the representatives of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait first met and talked about “one China.”
“The [1992] meeting ended with no side being happy about what had been said, but two weeks later, [China] agreed to accept that there is a consensus on one China, and it is just that we have different interpretations of what that is,” Ma said.
“I had also stressed in the open meeting that I would be saying more [about the ‘1992 consensus’] later [in the closed-door meeting with Xi], as we had a tacit agreement [not to talk about sensitive issues] in the public setting,” he added.
Asked about foreign reports that were relatively negative about the meeting, such as calling Ma a “yesterday man” and a “loser,” Ma said they are in the minority.
“There are also many accusing the meeting of selling out Taiwan, but you would find that they are domestic views, showing a lot of them have little understanding of the general global trend,” Ma said.
The president also emphasized that the “1992 consensus” is based on the ROC Constitution, “which is a one China constitution,” when asked about the legitimacy of the “1992 consensus” given that the national unification guidelines were abolished in 2006 and public opinion is changing.
“The ROC Constitution is also the basis of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), which signifies that there is one ROC, two regions,” he said.
“It should also be noted that the 1992 consensus is not something that [the Chinese government] has foisted upon us. It was proposed by us and accepted by them. When the ROC Constitution was established in 1947, [the People’s Republic of China] was not yet founded,” the president said.
Ma denied that he has, as Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said, forced a “framework” upon the next president.
“[Tsai] said she would maintain the status quo according to the ROC constitutional institution, and that is exactly one China, two regions, which is also the 1992 consensus,” Ma said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus’ motion to invite Ma to report to the legislature was pulled from the agenda yesterday for a cross-caucus negotiation that could last for at least a month.
The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
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