The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday denied that two top former officials affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have been forced out of their positions as board members of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), saying that the two had “resigned in recent days.”
The resignation of former MAC minister Su Chi (蘇起) and Central Daily News Online chairman Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭), who is a former deputy secretary-general of the KMT, was reported to the foundation’s board of directors and supervisors at a meeting on Friday, according to the MAC, the Cabinet-level agency responsible for Taiwan’s China policy.
The council thanked Su and Chang for their support and said it respects the foundation’s handling of the resignations.
Their replacements are to be elected at upcoming board meetings, the council said.
The council said that the two former board members were not forced to leave the SEF by the Presidential Office, as has been reported.
Su had also served as secretary-general of the National Security Council, the president’s deputy secretary-general and deputy director of the KMT’s former working group on China affairs.
He has been chairman of the Taipei Forum, a non-partisan think tank, since 2011.
Chang was director of the KMT’s Mainland Affairs Department.
The KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led administration have different stances on Taiwan’s relations with China. The KMT supports the so-called “1992 consensus,” while the DPP rejects the consensus.
The “1992 consensus” — a term Su admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a supposed tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
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