President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) plans to reiterate the importance of the so-called “1992 consensus” when the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) meets on Wednesday, which is the 22nd anniversary of high-level negotiations between Taiwan and China held in Singapore, MAC officials said yesterday.
In 1993, Taiwan’s then-Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫), and China’s then-Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits president Wang Daohan (汪道涵) held the highest-level talks ever between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China at the time.
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed understanding 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.
In 2006, former MAC chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted he made up the term “1992 consensus” in 2000 before the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) handed over power to the Democratic Progressive Party.
Ma has repeatedly said that the “1992 consensus” is the foundation for peaceful negotiations between Taiwan and China, to which he attributes the signing of more than a dozen cross-strait agreements on a wide range of issues, including judicial assistance and tourism.
During his visit to the MAC — Taiwan’s top China policymaking body, of which Ma was once the deputy chief — the president plans to reiterate the importance of the “1992 consensus” as a “foundation for peaceful cross-strait development,” an MAC official said yesterday.
Ma is also set to look back on the achievements of his China policy over the past seven years, perhaps in a bid to bolster the confidence of KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), who is heading to Beijing for talks between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on May 4.
With regards to Chu’s China policy, KMT spokesman Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中) said Chu would give a press conference before departing for China on Saturday in which he is expected to reaffirm the need to retain the “1992 consensus” as the basis for cross-strait negotiations.
He is also expected to talk about the need to “deepen” and “update” some ideas inherent to cross-strait understanding, Yang said.
As for the agenda for Chu’s scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Yang said they would exchange views on the prospects for cross-strait ties and other subjects related to the well-being of people on both sides of the strait.
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