Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday made a strong call for unity among all people of Chinese descent, amid political turmoil in Hong Kong and rising independence sentiment in Taiwan.
Xi spoke on the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), China’s first president and the godfather of Chinese nationalism, who continues to command broad respect within China and the Chinese diaspora.
Speaking to an audience of officials and military officers at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing, Xi called on Taiwanese leaders to endorse the principle that Taiwan and China are parts of a single Chinese nation.
“Any party, organization or individual in Taiwan, no matter what they proposed in the past, as long as they acknowledge the [so-called] 1992 consensus and that the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China, we would like to make exchanges with them,” Xi said.
He added that Beijing would “never allow anyone, any organization, any party to split out any piece of land of China at any time and in any way.”
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has refused to endorse the “1992 consensus,” prompting Beijing to cut contacts with her government and broaden its outreach to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
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 KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Beijing has also registered alarm over anti-China sentiment in Hong Kong among newly elected members of the territory’s Legislative Council.
China’s top legislature this week took the rare step of intervening directly in a local Hong Kong political dispute by effectively barring two legally elected separatist lawmakers from taking office, setting the stage for further turmoil in the semi-autonomous territory.
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