Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) said he did not know that New Taipei City Mayor and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) met with China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Deputy Chairman Li Yafei (李亞飛), who visited Taiwan for a finance forum on Wednesday.
Hsia was responding to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) at a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee in Taipei.
Chuang said Chu and Li met at a dinner after the event.
Chuang lashed out at the council, the nation’s primary office for dealing with cross-strait affairs, saying that it is being marginalized by the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party.
DPP Legislator Chao Tien-ling (趙天麟) asked the council to release a formal statement — “just as it did to the DPP’s cross-strait policy statement days ago” — reiterating the government’s stance on the so-called “1992 consensus” to protest Li’s unilateral interpretation of the consensus, which he announced on Wednesday.
The “1992 consensus” refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and Beijing that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted in 2000 that he had made up the term “1992 consensus.”
Hsia said that the council has little information on the planned meeting between Chu and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), but added that Chu is required to report to the Executive Yuan about his absence and leaving the country.
“I am sure that Chu understands perfectly that without the council’s authorization, he could not make any agreement [with China] or discuss issues that involve the nation’s public,” Hsia said.
Hsia told People First Party Legislator Chen Yi-chieh (陳怡潔), who asked about the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank being a topic of the meeting between Chu and Xi, that there would be no problem if Chu were to “exchange views about” Taiwan’s application to join the regional development bank, “but he is in no position to represent [the nation] on the issue.”
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