The leader of Taiwan’s main opposition party yesterday vowed to “lay a foundation for peace” across the Taiwan Strait and regional stability on her visit to China next week, during which she is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Speaking at a meeting of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Central Standing Committee, Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said it has been 10 years since a KMT chairperson visited China.
Since then, cross-strait relations have worsened to the point where the Taiwan Strait is seen as one of the most volatile geopolitical flashpoints, to the dismay of Taiwanese and the international community, Cheng said.
Photo: CNA
“The KMT, therefore, has an unavoidable historical mission to prove that the two sides of the strait unquestionably can lay the foundation for peaceful and stable cross-strait relations, regional stability and global peace,” she said.
Cheng did not elaborate on what tangible steps she would propose or what measures could be taken to build such a foundation, and she did not take any questions after speaking at the gathering.
However, she did point to the KMT’s past practices as a possible guide to the future, were the KMT to regain power in 2028.
As then-KMT chairman Lien Chan’s (連戰) “Journey of Peace” visit to China in 2005 and the eight years of governance under former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) from 2008 to 2016 showed, the KMT strictly adhered to the “1992 consensus” and opposed Taiwanese independence, she said.
This direction, staunchly rejected by the independence-leaning ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), would immediately lead to the resumption of cross-strait dialogue, and expand exchanges and mutual trust, creating conditions for peace, Cheng said.
“As long as we return to the 1992 consensus, Taiwan will not need to fight a war,” she said.
Cheng vowed to send the world an “important” message with her upcoming trip through her efforts to “resolve military tensions in the Taiwan Strait and pursue the benefits of peace at a time of geopolitical uncertainties.”
The so-called “1992 consensus,” a term 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 Chinese government that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
During her six-day visit to China from Tuesday next week to April 12, Cheng would make stops in Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing.
She is scheduled to visit Sun Yat-sen’s Mausoleum in Nanjing on Wednesday next week, but not many other details related to her trip have been released by Beijing or the KMT.
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