Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday said that characterizations of the so-called “1992 consensus” by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) were incorrect.
On Wednesday, Xi said in a speech that Taiwan “must and will be” united with China based on the “1992 consensus” and under the “one China” principle.
He proposed a Taiwanese version of the “one country, two systems” model to achieve “peaceful unification.”
In response, Tsai said she rejects the “consensus,” as its goal is “Taiwan’s unification with China.”
The “consensus,” as defined by Beijing, is in fact the “one China” principle and the “one China, two systems” formula, she said.
Wu said that the KMT’s definition of the “1992 consensus” involves the free interpretation of “one China” by either side and rejected Xi’s inclusion of the “one country, two systems” framework as part of the “consensus.”
“The free interpretation of one China is in fact the 1992 consensus,” Wu said.
Tsai’s denial of the existence of the “1992 consensus” is also wrong, he said.
The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), with the approval of then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who was also KMT chairman, exchanged documents with Chinese authorities on Nov. 16, 1992, in which the two sides agreed that “free interpretation represented the content of the 1992 consensus,” Wu said.
“The two sides of the Taiwan Strait, based on the one China principle, agreed that either side can freely interpret what one China means in a verbal form,” Wu said.
“This means that the mainland can claim that the People’s Republic of China represents all of China, while we can also claim that the Republic of China [ROC] represents the whole of China,” he said.
Based on that agreement, then-SEF chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) and Wang Daohan (汪道涵), chairman of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, held talks in Singapore in April 1993, Wu said.
Separately yesterday, former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the KMT also came to the defense of the KMT’s stance regarding the “consensus,” saying that the “1992 consensus” and the “one China, two systems” framework are totally different things.
“The Republic of China has always adhered to the path of democracy and freedom, and will surely do so in the future,” Chu said, adding that to the KMT, a free interpretation that the ROC represents all of China is the party’s stance toward the “1992 consensus.”
Chu, who left office last month, has announced a bid to vie for the KMT’s nomination as its candidate in the next presidential election in early 2020.
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