Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) remarks in a speech on Wednesday last week are likely to exacerbate factionalism within the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ahead of next year’s presidential election, academics said.
In a speech to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1979 “Message to Compatriots in Taiwan,” Xi equated the so-called “1992 consensus” with China’s “one country, two systems” formula.
The KMT has argued that each side of the Taiwan Strait is free to have its own interpretation of what “China” means in the “1992 consensus.” The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side interpreting “China” differently.
The speech was the first time that Xi removed any ambiguity about the term by explicitly stating that Beijing would rule Taiwan under the “one country, two systems” formula.
While the KMT has denied that the “1992 consensus” includes the formula, Xi explicitly defined the term as meaning that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China, and both sides should cooperatively strive for unification,” Lin Wen-cheng (林文程), a professor of China and Asia Pacific studies at National Sun Yat-sen University, said on Sunday.
Xi also said that unification would take the form of the “one country, two systems” formula, Lin said.
“Therefore, according to what Xi said, the ‘1992 consensus’ essentially means the ‘one country, two systems’ formula,” Lin said.
Xi has removed any ambiguity from the term, leaving the KMT with no room to maneuver or way avoid the topic, he said.
Unlike the KMT, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and pro-localization voters have never been won over by the “1992 consensus,” Academia Sinica Institute of Sociology associate research fellow Wu Chieh-min (吳介民) said.
Xi’s “five points” for the promotion of peaceful unification are just a repackaging of the term, Wu said.
“It is like putting old wine in new bottles, but the local public and the international community are uninterested in this ‘bottle,’” he said.
The “one country, two systems” formula has no political value and is like “poison” for the presidential elections, he said, adding that the KMT would likely try to publicly distance itself from Beijing this year.
The KMT will need to solve the “thorny problem” of how to retain ties with China, but keep those ties concealed, Wu said.
Xi misinterpreted the KMT’s gains in the Nov. 24 local elections as meaning that China’s policies toward Taiwan were correct, which is why Xi chose this time to bring up the “one country, two systems” formula, he added.
The KMT’s election wins in the local elections on Nov. 24 last year were due to people’s concerns about livelihood issues, not about cross-strait ties, he said, adding that Xi’s “hardline” remarks have left him with egg on his face.
Xi hopes to cultivate certain politicians in Taiwan and his “five points” are simply a call to action for those politicians, Wu said.
Through promises of financial rewards, certain politicians have been roused to act as representatives of Taiwan in dialogues with China, which are an attempt to break through Taiwan’s democratic defenses through psychological manipulation, he said.
Xi “wants to dig his hooks into the minds of ambitious people who have dreams of getting rich. He wants to appeal to people’s greed to buy Taiwan,” he said.
When the local media report on Xi’s “five points,” scaring the Taiwanese public with talk of unification, that means the CCP’s psychological warfare works, Wu said.
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Restarting the No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant would take up to 18 months, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said today. Kuo was answering questions during a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee, where legislators are considering amendments to the Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源發展條) amid concerns about the consequences of the Pingtung County reactor’s decommissioning scheduled for May 17. Its decommissioning is to mark the end of Taiwan’s nuclear power production. However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have proposed an amendment to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) that would extend the life of existing