The Presidential Office yesterday rejected the incoming Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government’s criticism of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) explanations of the “one China” principle and the so-called “1992 consensus” as confining Taiwan into a political box.
The consensus is an indispensable cross-strait policy formulated based on the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution, the office said.
“The ‘1992 consensus’ and the principle of ‘one China, with different interpretations’ are not a political box, but rather an integral part of the current peaceful and prosperous ‘status quo’ across the Taiwan Strait that was formed in accordance with the ROC Constitution,” Presidential Office spokesman Charles Chen (陳以信) said in a news release.
The president has never meant to represent the incoming DPP government, Chen said, adding that as the incumbent leader, Ma is obligated to explain to the public the reasons Taiwan has been able to join the annual World Health Assembly (WHA) without a hiccup over the past seven years.
Ma also has a duty to ensure a smooth handover of the peaceful and prosperous cross-strait “status quo” to the next administration, Chen added.
Chen’s comments came one day after Tung Chen-yuan (童振源), the Executive Yuan spokesman-designate, said that an administration that is due to leave office in 10 days should not and does not have the right to confine Taiwan to a political box in terms of its participation at international organizations.
Tung made the remarks hours after the Presidential Office issued a news release quoting Ma as saying at a high-level national security meeting on Monday afternoon that the “1992 consensus” was the strongest and most rational response the nation can make in the face of UN Resolution 2758.
The WHO cited the UN resolution and WHA Resolution 25.1 as well as the “one China” principle in its invitation to Taiwan to attend this year’s WHA meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, which runs from May 23 to May 28.
UN Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the only lawful representative of China to the UN, while WHA Resolution 25.1, adopted at the 25th WHA in 1972, expelled the ROC from the WHO.
Ma said at the time of the resolution’s passage, the interpretations of the “one China” principle by the UN, the international community and both sides of the Taiwan Strait were “exclusive” in nature.
Under the premise of the “1992 consensus” and the Constitution, Ma said the “one China” principle has become relatively flexible and tolerant and is no longer the same principle upon which the UN resolution was passed.
The “1992 consensus” — a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese government that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Chen aso dismissed the concerns of some politicians that the UN resolution has no bearing on Taiwan’s participation in the WHA — because the resolution only resolved the issue of the representation of China — calling it a “severe misunderstanding.”
“If the two are not related, how come Taiwan was not able to attend the WHA for 38 straight years? Why has the nation been fully excluded from the UN and its related organizations?” Chen said in the news release.
The government hopes that Taiwan can continue to attend the WHA, Chen said, which is why it reminded the WHO in a response delivered on Monday that the problems concerning the “one China” principle can be addressed with the “1992 consensus.”
“If the incoming DPP government has a better way to handle the ‘one China’ principle than the ‘consensus,’ why has it not put it forward,” Chen said.
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:
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