Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that the so-called “1992 consensus” is a term that lacks substance, and that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trumpeting of the Beijing-backed “one China” principle in Singapore could indicate that he is suffering from “brain damage.”
Ko made the remarks in response to media queries while accompanying People First Party legislative candidate Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) to pray for good fortune at Keelung’s Shengan Temple.
Despite repeatedly saying that he would refrain from criticizing Ma, Ko could not contain his frustration over Ma’s performance at the Singapore summit.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
“How could you have asserted the ‘one China’ principle? Have you suffered brain damage?” Ko said, in response to Ma’s statement that the “1992 consensus” is subject to the “one China” principle, while omitting the “different interpretations” component typically stressed by his administration.
The consensus, a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted that he fabricated in 2000, denotes a tacit understanding that there is only one China, with both sides of the Taiwan Strait having their own interpretations of what that means.
As for Ma’s description of the “1992 consensus” as “ambiguous, but capable of solving problems,” Ko said: “As I see it, it is ambiguous, but it has not solved any problems.”
The “1992 consensus” only matters if its premise is addressed in full, as without that it is nothing more than a “title,” Ko said.
Since Xi did not attend the post-summit press conference arranged by Chinese authorities, instead sending Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) instead, Ko said that Ma should not have presided over his own press conference, but assigned the task to Zhang’s counterpart, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言).
“If it was up to me, I would have just asked Hsia to hold the press conference,” Ko said.
Beijing’s handling of its press conference has drawn criticism, with many Taiwanese commentators saying that Ma and Xi reneged on their pledges to ensure that Taiwan and China are treated equally and with mutual respect.
Ko hit back at Ma’s apparent swipe during his press conference of the mayor’s “2015 new standpoint” on cross-strait relations, which he proposed at the annual Taipei-Shanghai forum.
Ma said that the “1992 consensus” should serve as the sole reference in cross-strait relations, as it is “unlike red wine, which has a different year [stamped on every bottle].”
“Is he suggesting that he sells different wine each year in the same package?” Ko said.
Asked if he would follow the “model” on cross-strait exchanges Ma created with the “1992 consensus” when meeting Shanghai officials at future forums Ko said: “As I said, it is nothing more than a title. Ma should explain what its content is.”
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching