Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Policy Committee director Alex Tsai (蔡正元) yesterday accused former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) office of “setting up [KMT Chairwoman] Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱)” by spreading a rumor that she thumbed her nose at Ma.
Tsai yesterday denied a news report saying KMT Vice Chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢) claimed Hung would not mention “one China, different interpretations,” but rather focus on the KMT’s recently passed policy platform that aims to “further” the so-called “1992 consensus” and on signing a peace agreement with Beijing during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Tuesday next week.
Tsai quoted Chan as saying that he has not taken part in writing the speech for Hung’s meeting with Xi and has not spoken to the media regarding what Hung would say during the meeting.
The Chinese-language China Times reported that Ma’s office released a statement on Thursday, saying that the “1992 consensus” and “one China, different interpretations” are not only a cross-strait consensus, but also a “Taiwanese consensus,” in response to Chan’s remarks.
Tsai said he wondered why the falsified remarks were put in the same piece with the statement from Ma’s office, adding that he suspects that the untrue remarks said to be Chan’s “were actually spread by Ma’s office.”
Tsai called on the office to refrain from opening unnecessary battlegrounds and be more discreet.
“I hope that Ma could keep an eye on his office personnel and restrict them from sending groundless information to the media,” he said.
Tsai also commented on media reports, which he said were based on information provided by Ma’s office alleging that Hung deliberately put on makeup when Ma was talking about his approach to the “1992 consensus” during a dinner on Monday night.
Tsai said Hung was simply putting on lipstick because she was about to leave the gathering and meet the media outside, and Ma’s office intentionally interpreted the move as a show of disrespect to Ma, in a bid to “try to set Hung up.”
Ma’s office released another statement yesterday afternoon saying that the statement issued on Thursday was in response to the “baseless allegation that Ma did not bring up ‘one China, different interpretations’ during his meeting with Xi in November last year.”
Denying that the statement had anything to do with the China Times report Tsai referred to, the office asked Tsai to “stop making unsubstantiated accusations.”
The row between Tsai and Ma’s office began after a meeting between Ma and KMT leadership, including Hung, on Monday night.
Ma allegedly urged KMT members to repeat the whole phrase as often as possible, since it would be okay if he did not mention “one China, different interpretations” when referring to the “1992 consensus,” but it would be a problem for “someone” to simply refer to the consensus without bringing up ‘one China, different interpretations.’”
It was understood that Ma was implicitly disapproving of the “one China, same interpretation” framework endorsed by Hung.
Tsai has since then publicly taking issue with Ma’s office, saying it is not up to Ma to decide what the KMT’s policy should be and calling the office an “agency without legal foundation.”
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