Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday questioned the competence of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) as an intermediary in cross-strait relations, pledging to work to restore exchanges and mutual trust across the Taiwan Strait at a non-governmental level.
“Cross-strait relations require delicate handling and stable management. However, [Mainland Affairs Council Minister] Katharine Chang (張小月), supervisor of the government agency in charge of ties with Beijing, does not even know the names of the Chinese Communist Party’s seven Central Standing Committee members,” Hung said.
In light of Chang’s apparent lack of knowledge about Beijing, the public can hardly expect the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to make any breakthroughs in cross-strait relations, Hung said, questioning whether the government has given up on cross-strait ties.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Hung’s remarks came hours after Chang struggled to answer KMT Legislator Chen Chao-ming’s (陳超明) questions about the names of the Central Standing Committee members, the top five Chinese provinces with the highest density of Taiwanese businesspeople and the names of the mayors of Beijing’s four municipalities at a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee in Taipei.
Legislators convened the committee meeting yesterday to examine what the government plans to do to assuage frozen cross-strait ties and restore official cross-strait communication mechanisms, which have been suspended by Beijing since May due to Tsai’s refusal to acknowledge the so-called “1992 consensus.”
The “1992 consensus” 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. Former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) said in 2006 that he had made up the term in 2000.
Accusing Tsai of unilaterally changing the cross-strait “status quo,” Hung said the KMT would not sit idly by while Taiwanese suffer as a result of the president’s ill-devised policies and her insistence on letting ideology guide her government’s policymaking process.
“The KMT is willing to make efforts to let more Taiwanese enjoy the fruit of ‘cross-strait peace,’ restore cross-strait mutual trust and re-establish exchanges across the Taiwan Strait at the non-governmental level,” Hung said.
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