Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) description of cross-strait relations as two sides “belonging to one China” risked leading to a “misunderstanding” that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) said in Taipei yesterday.
There is a subtle difference between that description and the so-called “1992 consensus” adopted by the government, under which both sides of the Taiwan Strait recognize that there is ‘“one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means, Hsia told a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee in Taipei.
The government has tried to avoid using the language Chu used because of political sensitivities and has opposed the formula whenever the Chinese mention it, Hsia said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“We consider it unacceptable. That position remains unchanged,” he said. “We would not choose to use of words he [Chu] did.”
However, Hsia commended Chu’s characterization of the “1992 consensus,” saying that Chu intended to highlight the importance of the consensus — although he used a different way to express it.
“If the ‘one China’ he [Chu] meant was the Republic of China [ROC], as he said it was, of course I am not opposed to the idea,” Hsia said.
Hsia was invited to the meeting to take legislators’ questions over Chu’s just-concluded trip to China, where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and attended the 10th Cross-Strait Economic, Trade and Culture Forum cohosted by the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Chu’s statement that “both sides [of the Taiwan Strait] belong to ‘one China,’ with differences in connotations and definitions [of ‘one China’]” was at the center of the sometimes heated debate.
Hsia did not voice his opinion about Chu’s definition of the “1992 consensus” until he was grilled by legislators from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Taiwan Solidarity Union and the People First Party — one after another — about whether the government had shifted its position from the “1992 consensus,” or what it said was “one China, with each side having its own interpretation of what ‘China’ means” to “both sides belonging to ‘one China.’”
In the beginning, Hsia said the phrasing of “both sides belonging to ‘one China,’” was similar to the “1992 consensus” of “one China, with each side having its own interpretation of what ‘China’ means.”
Hsia said Chu was the first person in the ROC to describe cross-strait relations as being “two sides belonging to one China,” a term coined by Beijing and commonly used by Chinese officials — most recently by Xi in March.
He was then corrected by DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋), who said former KMT chairmen Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and Lien Chan (連戰) had both proposed the idea before.
The statement made by former Mainland Affairs Council minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) in March 2013, in response to then-Chinese vice premier Li Keqiang (李克強), who said both sides belong to “one China,” that the characterization was “unacceptable” remains valid, Hsia said.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS