The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Saturday called on Beijing to respect Taiwan’s election results and allow benevolent interactions between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The council was responding to China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, which issued a statement late on Saturday shortly after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) won re-election by a large margin, reiterating Beijing’s adherence to the so-called “1992 consensus” and the “one country, two systems” formula, as well as its opposition to any form of independence for Taiwan.
The “1992 consensus” — a term former council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese government that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
In a statement, the council said the election results show Taiwanese’s clear response to the development of cross-strait relations and that Taiwan is a mature and consolidated democracy.
Chinese authorities should respect the results and face reality, it said, adding that Beijing should abandon threats of force against Taiwan and return to the “right path” of good cross-strait interactions, dropping its unilaterally set political preconditions for cross-strait dialogue.
Taiwanese’s insistence on democratic values and their adamant opposition to the “one country, two systems” formula should be clear to Beijing, which should face the new trend of development in cross-strait relations with Taiwan, the council said.
The government has been consistent in safeguarding Taiwan’s sovereignty, democracy and freedom and strives to maintain peace and stability in cross-strait relations, it said.
Separately, former US assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs Randall Schriver said that Taiwan’s successful presidential election is an important example for Chinese who look forward to having the right to hold democratic elections.
Speaking during a seminar on the results of Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections, Schriver said that Taiwan is not the only country in the Indo-Pacific region that has faced pressure from Beijing ahead of elections.
Taiwan’s success in holding its latest elections in the face of Chinese pressure is a “great inspiration” as other countries prepare for their own elections, said Schriver, who serves as chair of the Project 2049 Institute, a US-based think tank.
“I think this [holding a successful election in Taiwan] is important for the entire region; frankly I think it is also important for the people of China,” he said.
“Every time Taiwan succeeds in its own election, people in China pay attention and ask themselves the question why they cannot have the same privilege and rights,” he said.
Taiwan’s example would be one of the leading factors in promoting change in China should Beijing one day decide to be open to democracy, he added.
“So someday there may be a different kind of China, and I am sure that Taiwan’s example is going to be on the leading edge of what promotes that change,” he said.
Former American Institute in Taiwan chairman Richard Bush said he hopes that the Chinese government will reflect on what this election means for its Taiwan policies.
“If they [China] seriously reflect on it, then maybe they would consider an approach that is different from ‘one country, two systems,’ that’s more appropriate to the reality of Taiwan,” Bush said on the sidelines of the seminar.
However, Bush said he thinks that Beijing would instead toughen its use of coercion against Taiwan.
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:
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