The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is setting political thresholds that would hinder, if not make impossible, efforts by incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) administration to initiate dialogue with China, experts said yesterday.
Citing comments by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華), Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said that the CCP was asking the impossible by demanding that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) set aside its Taiwanese independence stance.
Commenting on Lai’s inaugural address on Monday next week, Chen said that any Taiwanese party willing to recognize Beijing’s “one China” principle would face “no difficulties” when interacting with the CCP, adding that cross-strait dialogue is only possible if the DPP abandons its Taiwanese independence stance.
Photo: Screengrab from the Internet
Taiwanese independence cannot coexist with cross-strait peace, Chen said, adding that Beijing is adamant that Taiwan observe the “one China” principle and the so-called “1992 consensus” to promote peaceful cross-strait relations with the ultimate aim of unification.
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 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the CCP that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Wu said that the CCP’s demands were tailored to make it difficult for the DPP, and that China could very well demand that the KMT give up its claims that the Republic of China (ROC) is a sovereign state.
After all, the CCP considers the ROC defunct and its existence creates the “two Chinas” issue, he said.
Lai would never accept the “one China” principle, and his inaugural address would clarify how Taiwan would approach cross-strait relations based on Taiwanese sovereignty and the sovereignty of the ROC, he said.
Lai has also made it clear that any interaction with China would be based on the understanding that the nations are on equal footing, he added.
China’s actions over the past few years have left no room for the ROC’s interpretation of “one China” and that it willfully ignores Taiwan’s stance, Wu said.
If China insists on placing prerequisites on cross-strait dialogue, it is to blame for undermining cross-strait relations, he said.
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