A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) task force on cross-strait discourse has proposed new guidelines for the construction of stable and peaceful relations across the Taiwan Strait as part of the party’s reform efforts.
The task force, overseen by the KMT’s reform committee, proposed four pillars for the party’s handling of cross-strait relations at yesterday’s meeting of the committee: upholding the Republic of China’s national sovereignty; safeguarding freedom, democracy and human rights; prioritizing the safety of Taiwan; and creating win-win cross-strait relations.
In its presentation, the task force proposed that the “1992 consensus” should be viewed as “a historical description of past cross-strait interaction.”
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The so-called “1992 consensus” — a term that former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that both sides acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Although past KMT administrations had deemed the “1992 consensus” an important basis for seeking common ground in cross-strait interaction, the term has been marred by President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration, the task force said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) speech last year marking the anniversary of the 1979 “message to compatriots in Taiwan” also generated strong opposition to the term among Taiwanese, as Xi urged them to accept Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula based on his claim that it was part of the “1992 consensus,” it added.
Tensions across the Taiwan Strait have not been higher since Beijing launched missile tests in 1996, as it attempted to influence Taiwan’s first direct presidential election that year, it said.
The task force recommended that the KMT, as a party with a strong sense of responsibility, use the guidelines to work toward stable cross-strait relations, saying that it should push for a legal mechanism with oversight powers that would allow cross-strait negotiations to be as open and transparent as possible.
Legislation should be drafted to regulate interaction between officials across the Strait so that exchanges based on inappropriate interests end, it said.
The KMT would continue to promote long-term economic and trade relations across the Strait, but would ensure that the fruits of such economic development benefit the majority of Taiwanese, the task force said.
“We will do everything we can for peace, but we will never kneel down for it,” the task force said. “The KMT will never accept any option that alters the national sovereignty of the Republic of China — therefore ‘one country, two systems’ is not an option for Taiwanese.”
“We also know that Taiwanese independence is unfeasible. Cutting off Zhonghua (中華) symbols and slashing the inheritance of the minkuo (民國) would not only create rifts in Taiwanese society, but also block the support that it receives from the international community, which it needs very much,” it added.
The four guidelines are the keys to resolving long-time opposition between Taiwan and China, it said.
Following the presentation, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said that the “change toward the ‘1992 consensus’ was not introduced by the KMT, but by Beijing and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who have led the Taiwanese public to misunderstand and distrust the term.”
KMT members should be open-minded toward the variety of political views held by different generations of Taiwanese, he added.
Like the DPP, the KMT stands for national sovereignty, democracy and human rights, Chiang said, adding that he hopes the four guidelines can take the party to a better place on its way to reform.
INCURSION: After 13 PLA aircraft flew into Taiwan’s ADIZ, the US Department of State said that China should rather ‘engage in meaningful dialogue’ with Taiwan US President Joe Biden’s administration on Saturday urged China to stop placing military pressure on Taiwan, while calling on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to engage in peaceful dialogue. The statement by the US Department of State was issued after 13 Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Saturday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. The air force scrambled fighter jets to monitor the Chinese aircraft, issuing radio warnings and mobilizing air defense assets until the planes left the ADIZ. The US “notes
‘INCREASED VIGILANCE’: A source of infection has not yet been found for the latest two cases in a hospital cluster, which should serve as a warning, Chen Shih-chung said A total of 2,991 people associated with a COVID-19 cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital have been put under home isolation, after an emergency expanded isolation order was issued on Sunday evening, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Fifteen people have so far tested positive in the cluster infection. The first case in the cluster (case No. 838) was reported on Jan. 12 — a doctor who treated an infected patient who had returned from the US. Contact tracing for the first 13 cases found connections to case No. 838, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who
CHANGE OF GUARD: Hsiao Bi-khim’s attendance at Joe Biden’s inauguration will come as a boost to those in Taiwan who feared that the new US administration would be less friendly than that of Donald Trump to the nation Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) is to attend US President Joe Biden’s swearing-in ceremony at the US Capitol after she was invited by the US Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, a news release issued by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the US said last night. The news came as a surprise as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been reticent about the matter, while Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members had accused the Democratic Progressive Party administration of hedging its bets on the Republican Party. Asked about when Hsiao received the invitation, the ministry did not
FAMILY UNIT: The CECC warned that the eldest sister of the latest case, who also has COVID-19, visited Taoyuan’s Chungping evening market on Tuesday and Wednesday The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported a domestic case of COVID-19, associated with a recent cluster infection at Taoyuan General Hospital, and two imported cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that the latest case (No. 885) is a woman in her 50s, who is the third daughter of case No. 881, a man in his 90s. The woman is the main caregiver of her elderly father, who had been hospitalized earlier this month and was treated by a nurse (case No. 852) from Monday to Thursday last week, he said, adding that