People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) said yesterday that he is willing to meet with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) regarding the six-point communique he drew up with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) on Thursday, and said the communique was a breakthrough. China had committed on paper their acknowledgement of the so-called "1992 consensus" and promised not to take military action should Taiwan abstain from making any moves toward independence, he said.
"If President Chen sees the text and publicized results of our [Hu and Soong] meeting and if he feels he needs to better understand it, I am willing to meet with him. If he wishes to meet, and he sees clearly [the situation] and is willing to push through [the meaning of the communique], then I am very willing to see him," said Soong yesterday.
Soong yesterday returned from a nine-day tour of China, during which he visited four Chinese cities and met with Hu in his capacity as Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chairman. During the meeting, the second between a Taiwanese opposition leader and Hu this month, Soong and Hu drew up a six-point communique which reiterated their parties' united stance on their opposition to Taiwanese independence, support for the so-called "1992 consensus," and China's willingness to push through various economic proposals, including a cross-strait free trade agreement.
PHOTO: YAO CHIEH-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
Speaking to the media at the airport upon his return to the nation at 3:30pm and at press conference later yesterday, Soong gave a further explanation of his six-point agreement with Hu and welcomed the news yesterday from China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) that China had decided to offer various policy "gifts" to Taiwan.
At the PFP press conference yesterday, Soong clarified that the new term, "two sides of the Strait, one China," was a new way of considering the "1992 consensus," and was not meant to take the place of the often-referred to concept behind the consensus: the "one China principle, with different interpretations."
The new phrase, "two sides of the Strait, one China" recognizes the reality of the cross-strait situation, given the historical conflict between the governments of China and the Republic of China, Soong said.
"It is important to restore the historical truth of the cross-strait situation. As a result, the phrase `two sides of the Strait, one China,' acknowledges the equal relationship between [China and Taiwan]," Soong said.
A further breakthrough, according to Soong, is having China commit to paper the specific origins of the "1992 consensus."
The so-called "1992 consensus" refers to an so-called agreement between Taiwanese and Chinese negotiators during a 1992 meeting in Hong Kong to base any future negotiations on the "one China" principle, but what is meant by "one China" can be interpreted differently.
While the pan-blue camp said the consensus should serve as the basis of a new round of talks between Taiwan and China, the current administration has stated on many occasions that it does not acknowledge the consensus and that it does not exist.
Because Soong-Hu the communique characterizes the current cross-strait situation as "two sides of the strait, one China," Soong suggested the Chen administration choose to accept the terminology and interpret the "1992 consensus" in this way.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS