The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) annual forum will not replace government-level communications across the Taiwan Strait, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Katharine Chang (張小月) said yesterday, adding that it is “out of the question.”
Chang made the remarks in response to media queries over speculation that attendance by China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Chairman Chen Deming (陳德銘) at KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) could signal that the annual KMT-CCP get-together would replace official cross-strait communication mechanisms.
“The KMT-CCP forum is an interaction between two political parties. Cross-strait exchanges should be more comprehensive, especially when it comes to matters pertaining to public authority as they can only be dealt with by the government or an authorized government agent,” Chang said on the sidelines of a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee.
It is impossible for the KMT-CCP forum to take the place of government-level cross-strait communication mechanisms, she added.
The speculation emerged after Beijing replaced Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪) with Chen in a six-member delegation that accompanied Xi during his meeting with Hung on Tuesday last week.
The meeting was followed by a two-day KMT-CCP forum, which first started after then-KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) visited China in 2005 — the first formal meeting between the two parties since the Chinese Civil War.
Beijing cut off cross-strait communications between the Mainland Affairs Council and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, as well as the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation and its Chinese counterpart, ARATS, shortly after President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) inauguration in May.
The actions were among a series of punitive measures imposed by China against Tsai over her refusal to accept the so-called “1992 consensus,” which refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and Beijing that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Reiterating the government’s opposition to the setting of any prerequisites or preconditions for cross-strait communications and exchanges, Chang said she hopes Beijing could understand that Taiwan is a democracy where transition of political power is the norm.
“A new situation was created after May 20 with the inauguration of a new government. Our policies are also devised based on the new electoral mandate,” Chang said.
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