Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday rejected a claim that China’s proposal of “one country, two systems” is a demonstration of goodwill, saying that an example of goodwill would be China stopping its constant harassment of Taiwan.
Wu made the remarks through the ministry’s official Twitter account one day after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) reiterated Beijing’s commitment to the promotion of peaceful development of cross-strait relations and peaceful unification at a news conference following the conclusion of the second session of the 13th Chinese National People’s Congress in Beijing.
Li said that China would continue to adhere to the “one China” principle and the so-called “1992 consensus,” while opposing Taiwanese independence.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuen, Taipei Times
He also said that the five points Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in January proposed in a speech about Taiwan — which include a plan to explore the Taiwanese version of the “one country, two systems” formula — encapsulated China’s guiding principles in its dealings with Taiwan.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman An Fengshan (安峰山) at a news conference in Beijing on Feb. 27 called the “one country, two systems” formula a manifestation of China’s “ultimate goodwill and care for our Taiwanese compatriots.”
An said the formula would provide Taiwanese with more opportunities and better living conditions.
“The leaders of #China think imposing ‘one country, two systems’ on democratic #Taiwan is goodwill. But I’m sure people here don’t feel the same way,” Wu said on Twitter yesterday.
“Perhaps the 23 million people of Taiwan want to have a say in what qualifies as goodwill, like stopping the harassment?” he said.
It is not the first time Wu has taken to Twitter to vent his frustration with China’s repeated attempts to suppress Taiwan, such as excluding the nation from international organizations, poaching its diplomatic allies and forcing foreign businesses to change how they refer to Taiwan.
In late January, he called the Taiwan Affairs Office “GTB lunatics” in response to the office’s ridicule of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
“GTB” is a romanized acronym for the office, which is called guo tai ban (國台辦) in Mandarin.
The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
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