Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday denied a media report that China had asked her to recognize the so-called “1992 consensus” before she would be allowed to visit the country next month. Chen, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party, said she has no plans to visit China at the moment.
The Chinese-language Next Magazine yesterday reported that Chen had planned to pay a visit to a northeastern region of China next month, but the plan was dropped after China demanded that Chen recognize the “1992 consensus” as a precondition for the visit.
Asked to comment on the report, Chen said: “The city’s Tourism Bureau is planning a visit to China next month; as for me, I don’t have such a plan at the moment.”
Chen added that she has always believed that, when it is beneficial for the development of the city and for cross-strait relations, there should be more frequent cross-strait exchanges.
“The two sides [of the Taiwan Strait] should work together to create a mutually friendly atmosphere by putting aside their differences while finding similarities,” Chen said, adding that there were very good interactions between the two countries when Kaohsiung hosted the World Games in 2009 and the Asia-Pacific Cities Summit in 2013.
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Fan Liqing (范麗青) said China welcomes all organizations, government agencies at different levels and individuals from Taiwan, as long as they support the “1992 consensus,” oppose Taiwanese independence, and agree with the idea that Taiwan and China are “one country.”
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party that both Taiwan and China acknowledge there is “one China, with each side having its own interpretation of what that means.”
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GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
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