The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday admitted that resolving the domestic political rift over the so-called "1992 consensus" has never been on its agenda, despite a resolution passed by last year's Economic Development Advisory Conference (EDAC) that calls on the government to do just that.
"Reconciling the domestic dis-putes caused by the `92 consen-sus' [which China interprets as saying that both sides agree that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of its territory] was never included in our plans for implementing the EDAC conclusions," said MAC Vice Chairman Jonathan Liu (劉德勳).
Liu was speaking at a MAC press conference that was billed as a briefing on the action taken by the council to fulfill its responsibilities in connection with the resolutions of last August's EDAC meeting. He said that, in general, the MAC "has done a tremendous amount to implement the EDAC's resolutions, but China's refusal to resume cross-strait dialogue and the Legislative Yuan's slowness in reviewing bills had delayed overall progress."
He said the MAC had completed its draft bill to allow Chinese investments in Taiwan, was working on a system for cross-strait financial transfers between banks, and "has plans for a resumption of cross-strait dialogue."
Among the 36 resolutions passed by the EDAC's cross-strait panel was one calling on "the government to approach all of the political parties to reach a consensus over the `1992 consensus' and resume dialogue on issues like the establishment of direct links, in accordance with the Constitution and as soon as possible."
Both the KMT and PFP have urged the government to recognize the existence of the "1992 consensus" in attempts to resume dialogue with China right away, while the DPP and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) have maintained that no consensus was reached in 1992.
Taiwan's three main political parties have fought bitterly over the past two years on whether the "1992 consensus" is relevant. The accompanying political strife has been considered as damaging to Taiwan's position regarding cross-strait relations.
"Whether we are going to resume negotiations with China or not, fighting domestically before any talks [with China] is definitely not a smart thing for us to do," Shi Hwei-you (
It was Shi who proposed the EDAC resolution that calls for the government to solve the dispute.
"Getting the ending of the disputes caused by the `1992 consensus' included as one of the EDAC's conclusions took us a lot of effort, and it was only included at the last moment. If the government is not going to implement this conclusion, who will?" Shi said.
China has insisted that it would not resume any dialogue with Taiwan, including discussions about establishing direct links, unless Taiwan recognize the relevance of the "92 consensus."
"We appeal to the government to implement the EDAC's conclusions by reconciling the disputes over the `1992 consensus' -- by following the Constitution's `one China' concept as soon as possible," said economics professor and former New Party legislator Lai Shyh-bao (
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