Cross-strait affairs will remain a core issue in the presidential election next year, and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) is shooting herself in the foot by denying the so-called “1992 consensus,” senior presidential adviser King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) said yesterday.
The pan-green camp clearly thinks it has the upper hand and hopes that there will be no unexpected changes in the campaign, King said in a UFO Radio interview.
“As the opposition party, they [the pan-greens] have aggressively attacked the ruling party. Now they hail tolerance and reconciliation, because they do not want any surprises,” King told radio show host Tang Hsiang-lung (唐湘龍).
Photo: CNA
“By contrast, the pan-blue camp is in a disadvantageous position, and it needs an ‘unexpected variable’ to have a chance to turn the tide and win,” he said.
This “unexpected variable” could be Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who needs to formulate new campaign strategies to turn her situation around and win.
King added that cross-strait affairs would always be a core issue in a presidential election, and they are being closely watched not only by people in Taiwan and China, but also those in the US and Japan.
This is a key difference between a presidential and a local election, as people are more concerned about the impact of choosing a president who could change the nation’s cross-strait policies, he said.
Asked about Tsai’s position on cross-strait relations — which she has said is to maintain the “status quo” — King said that the “1992 consensus” has helped keep cross-strait relations stable with its “strategic vagueness.”
“Tsai rejected the ‘1992 consensus,’ and it is very difficult for Tsai to go back on that position — but you never know. Some people change their minds when the situation changes,” King said.
Faced with a rising China, King said that Taiwan should not think it can do whatever it wants.
The nation needs wisdom to gain the most favorable position in international politics, he said.
Denying the “1992 consensus” would upset China and would be “shooting yourself in the foot,” he said.
King also said that he is not involved in the presidential election campaign.
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed understanding reached during the cross-strait talks in 1992 that both Taiwan and China acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what that means.
RISK FACTORS: ‘We hope people can cooperate and endure it ... it is possibly the very important last mile,’ Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said Taiwan’s COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations are to remain the same next month, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. The center reported 42,112 new local COVID-19 cases and 85 deaths, saying that the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has dropped to a new low this month. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said that the center is keeping COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations the same due to the local virus situation, and an increase in the number of imported cases of the new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 of SARS-CoV-2, among other risk factors. Easing
TRAVEL CONFERENCE: Representatives from the two countries exchanged views on how to increase tourist numbers, with one identifying individual travel as a trend Taiwan and South Korea aim to increase the number of tourists traveling between the two countries to 3 million, government and tourism industry representatives said at a conference in Hsinchu City yesterday. The annual event was attended by Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯); Tourism Bureau Director-General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰); Taiwan Visitors Association chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭); South Korean Representative to Taiwan Chung Byung-won; Yoon Ji-sook, an official at the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; and Korea Association of Travel Agents chairman Oh Chang-hee. Global tourism is expected to soon rebound to between 55 and
DAMAGE CONTROL: The KMT in a statement called the Taiwan Strait ‘international waters,’ after Alexander Huang said China had the right to claim it as internal waters Lawmakers and experts yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) envoy to the US Alexander Huang (黃介正) of acting as China’s stooge, after he said that Beijing has the right to claim waters beyond its maritime territory as its exclusive economic zone and that the US has no legal basis to assert that the Taiwan Strait is an “international waterway.” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said in an online post that most of the world considers the Strait an international waterway, adding that this is important for safeguarding Taiwan. “We have seen US warships transiting through the Taiwan Strait.
The Taichung District Court yesterday sentenced to nine years in prison an unlicensed judo coach who caused the death of a seven-year-old student after slamming him onto the ground more than a dozen times. In its decision against the coach, a man surnamed Ho (何), the court cited his lack of remorse for using excessive force against an inadequately trained child and his failure to reconcile with the parents for his role in their son’s death. Speaking on behalf of the boy’s mother, Taichung City Councilor Jacky Chen (陳清龍) said the family would appeal to a higher court. Prosecutors said that Ho on
RSS