People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) said yesterday that he is willing to meet with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) regarding the six-point communique he drew up with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) on Thursday, and said the communique was a breakthrough. China had committed on paper their acknowledgement of the so-called "1992 consensus" and promised not to take military action should Taiwan abstain from making any moves toward independence, he said.
"If President Chen sees the text and publicized results of our [Hu and Soong] meeting and if he feels he needs to better understand it, I am willing to meet with him. If he wishes to meet, and he sees clearly [the situation] and is willing to push through [the meaning of the communique], then I am very willing to see him," said Soong yesterday.
Soong yesterday returned from a nine-day tour of China, during which he visited four Chinese cities and met with Hu in his capacity as Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chairman. During the meeting, the second between a Taiwanese opposition leader and Hu this month, Soong and Hu drew up a six-point communique which reiterated their parties' united stance on their opposition to Taiwanese independence, support for the so-called "1992 consensus," and China's willingness to push through various economic proposals, including a cross-strait free trade agreement.
PHOTO: YAO CHIEH-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
Speaking to the media at the airport upon his return to the nation at 3:30pm and at press conference later yesterday, Soong gave a further explanation of his six-point agreement with Hu and welcomed the news yesterday from China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) that China had decided to offer various policy "gifts" to Taiwan.
At the PFP press conference yesterday, Soong clarified that the new term, "two sides of the Strait, one China," was a new way of considering the "1992 consensus," and was not meant to take the place of the often-referred to concept behind the consensus: the "one China principle, with different interpretations."
The new phrase, "two sides of the Strait, one China" recognizes the reality of the cross-strait situation, given the historical conflict between the governments of China and the Republic of China, Soong said.
"It is important to restore the historical truth of the cross-strait situation. As a result, the phrase `two sides of the Strait, one China,' acknowledges the equal relationship between [China and Taiwan]," Soong said.
A further breakthrough, according to Soong, is having China commit to paper the specific origins of the "1992 consensus."
The so-called "1992 consensus" refers to an so-called agreement between Taiwanese and Chinese negotiators during a 1992 meeting in Hong Kong to base any future negotiations on the "one China" principle, but what is meant by "one China" can be interpreted differently.
While the pan-blue camp said the consensus should serve as the basis of a new round of talks between Taiwan and China, the current administration has stated on many occasions that it does not acknowledge the consensus and that it does not exist.
Because Soong-Hu the communique characterizes the current cross-strait situation as "two sides of the strait, one China," Soong suggested the Chen administration choose to accept the terminology and interpret the "1992 consensus" in this way.
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