A draft of the new Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) platform emphasizes its own version the so-called “1992 consensus,” which was rejected by China last week.
The KMT yesterday handed the draft to its representatives in preparation for the party’s national congress scheduled for Aug. 20 when KMT chairman-elect Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) is to assume office and the platform is to be unveiled.
The overview of the draft states that the KMT’s cross-strait policy is to promote peaceful developments across the Taiwan Strait on the basis of the “five visions” formulated by former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) and former Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) during a meeting in 2005 in Beijing.
The “five visions” were: promote peaceful cross-strait developments; promptly resume cross-strait negotiations; end hostility by signing a peace treaty; boost cross-strait economic exchanges and establish mechanisms for economic cooperation; facilitate negotiations to address the issue of [Taiwan’s] participation in international organizations and establish a “normalized” communication channel between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party.
The section on the KMT’s cross-strait policy states that the party would endeavor to maintain the peaceful “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait on the condition that such efforts are made within the framework of the Republic of China Constitution.
The KMT would promote cross-strait exchanges, Chinese culture, mutual understanding and tolerance on the basis of the “one China, different interpretations” principle that is attached to the “1992 consensus” in its pursuit of peace and continuous developments across the Strait, the draft said.
The “1992 consensus” — a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) said that he made up in 2000 — formerly referred to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
China’s Xinhua news agency signed the death knell of the “consensus” last week after it published a list of phrases banned from use in Chinese media, which stated that news outlets can mention the “1992 consensus,” but must not add the part about “different interpretations.”
The KMT’s draft platform added that the party is firm in its position against Taiwanese independence, as only by upholding the “one China, different interpretations” principle can cross-strait cooperation be mutually beneficial.
When asked to comment on the KMT’s new platform yesterday, Wu said it was “far from finalized.”
KMT headquarters would allow the about 1,000 KMT representatives sufficient time to study the draft and seek their opinions, which are to be used as reference when finalizing the platform, he said.
The KMT’s national congress is the party’s overarching authority and the opinions of KMT representatives must be respected, he said, adding that he would only participate in the decisionmaking process before the final version is approved.
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
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
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