Task force debates `one China'

The question of whether the 1992 consensus on "one China" will be the key which unlocks the impasse in cross-strait relations was the subject of debate among senior DPP officials and members of the cross-party task force yesterday.

Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) had called for a return to the consensus in his speech to the task force before its initial meeting last Saturday. Under the 1992 consensus, China and Taiwan were said to agree that there is "one China" but to agreed to disagree on its definition (一中各表).

DPP Secretary General Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁) raised doubts about whether the consensus was recognized by China. "Both sides of the Strait must clarify first whether there was a consensus in 1992 at all before there can be any question of returning to the 1992 consensus," Wu said, adding that if there really had been such a consensus, it should have been enshrined in official documents.

Wu added that, in his view, the 1992 consensus actually hadn't been recognized either in the international community, or domestically.

Interviewed on the radio yesterday, former DPP chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德) repeatedly said that the establishment of an inter-party task force (跨黨派小組) risked jeopardizing what he said was a long-established domestic consensus that "Taiwan is a sovereign state while both sides of the Strait have different interpretations."

Members of the task force, including KMT Legislator Jao Yung-ching (趙永清) and New Party Legislator Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) immediately echoed Lee's view, saying, "Lee's suggestion may provide the president with a possible solution to easing the cross-strait tension."

"Different opinions do exist about the meaning of the `one China' principle in Taiwan. If the inter-party task force can further come up with concrete solutions based on the 1992 consensus, however, it will benefit the development of cross-strait relations," Hau said, adding that the two sides of the Strait disagreed on the meaning of the "one China" principle rather than on the principle itself.

"Objecting to the `one China' principle will leave less room for discussions across the Strait," Jao said, suggesting that an alternative system, such as a confederation (邦聯制), could be designed as one option for building on cross-strait relations if Taiwan first returned to the "one China" principle.

DPP task force representative Trong Chai (蔡同榮), a long-time pro-independence hardliner, disagreed with Hau and Chao. He said that "the 1992 consensus was merely for the purpose of `self-comfort' because it was not accepted in the international community."

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) did not comment on the 1992 consensus after Lee delivered his speech last Saturday, but the Presidential Office said yesterday that Lee had been speaking for himself.

"It was made clear last week that all resolutions passed by the inter-party task force would be either on the basis of unanimity or of a three-fourths majority vote," said presidential spokesman Eugene Chien (簡又新) at the Presidential Office's routine weekly press conference yesterday.

Whether a return to the 1992 consensus was the bottom line of the new government's cross-strait policy was therefore unclear. Yet the president once again faces the dilemma of how to pacify DPP members without provoking China.

"The tenor of Chen's recent pronouncements on China have been tougher than his earlier conciliatory tone. It's clear that he wants to win DPP supporters back, but it is not strategically necessary for him to react too strongly to China at present because China is not pressuring the new government to show its bottom line," said Emile Shen (盛治仁), associate professor of politics at Soochow University.