Newly inaugurated Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) yesterday urged the public to stop fixating on the so-called “1992 consensus,” saying that cross-strait issues should be dealt with through laws.
At his first question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei during a meeting of the Internal Administration Committee, Chen, who took office on Monday, was pressed by several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers about his stance on the “1992 consensus.”
Due to the refusal of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration to acknowledge the “1992 consensus,” cross-strait exchanges have come to a standstill, leaving “staff at the council and the [semi-official] Straits Exchange Foundation with almost nothing to do,” KMT Legislator Sra Kacaw said.
Photo: CNA
Asked by Sra Kacaw how he intended to further cross-strait ties without embracing the “1992 consensus,” Chen said: “The content of the ‘1992 consensus’ has been debated in Taiwanese society. The public and I are perfectly aware of the KMT’s support for the concept of ‘one China, different interpretations,’ but there are also people who do not believe it exists.”
The Tsai administration’s guiding principle is to deal with cross-strait affairs through laws, including the Constitution and the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), said Chen, who led the council from April 2007 to May 2008 under then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Several breakthroughs in cross-strait relations were made during negotiations that adhered to those two laws, he said, adding that insistence on gluing cross-strait relations to a “controversial noun” would only tie the government’s hands.
“How much longer is our society going to fixate on the term?” Chen asked.
The “1992 consensus,” a term former council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
However, Beijing has never acknowledged the “different interpretations” part and has only mentioned the “one China” element in its references to the “1992 consensus.”
During the session, lawmakers also expressed concern about possible reactions from Beijing over an ongoing visit by Alex Wong (黃之瀚), deputy assistant secretary at the US Department of State’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
Wong is the first US official to arrive following the enactment on Friday last week of the US’ Taiwan Travel Act, which encourages visits by high-level US and Taiwanese officials.
The US factor has always played a significant role in cross-strait relations, Chen said.
“Of course Beijing is going to react and we have to anticipate what kind of reactions it will have,” Chen said, but added that it was too soon to tell, as a series of multilayered incidents are likely to follow.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS