China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) yesterday said that the office has taken note of the “broad one China framework” (大一中原則) initiated by a group of politicians and academics in Taipei on Tuesday, but that it would not comment on it.
Instead, Ma reiterated Beijing’s stance on relations with Taiwan at a weekly news briefing, saying that both the Chinese “mainland” and Taiwan are part of China, even if the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are not yet unified, and their relationship is not state-to-state.
He urged Taiwanese to push for peaceful development between the two sides on the basis of the so-called “1992 consensus” on one China and their opposition to Taiwanese independence.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) insists that the so-called “1992 consensus” was reached during a meeting in Hong Kong in 1992 between Taiwanese and Chinese representatives, under which both sides claim to have acknowledged that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “one China” means.
The Democratic Progressive Party insists that the “1992 consensus” does not exist.
Ma sidestepped the question when asked if the “broad one China framework” proposal was consistent with the “1992 consensus.”
The “broad one China framework” was proposed by a seven-member group led by former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Shih Ming-te (施明德) on Tuesday.
The group said Taiwan and China should form an international legal entity — consisting of the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China — to deal with bilateral affairs by consensus.
They called the idea a modus vivendi that would help the two sides get around their political differences and move forward.
Also at yesterday’s news briefing in Beijing, Ma again nixed the idea of having the leaders of Taiwan and China meet on the sidelines of an APEC summit to be held in Beijing in November.
“A meeting of the two sides’ leaders is a bilateral issue and should not take place on an international occasion,” the spokesman said.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) reiterated in an interview published by a Taiwanese monthly magazine on Sunday that the APEC summit would be a perfect occasion for a meeting between himself and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
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