“A page in history has already been turned” on the issue of the so-called “1992 consensus” in cross-strait relations, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said yesterday at a legislative committee meeting, when commenting on China’s response to President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) inaugural address the previous day.
The “1992 consensus” — a term that former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
In her first inaugural address, on May 20, 2016, Tsai said that she respected the historic fact that a cross-strait meeting in 1992 reached a shared understanding that sought common ground while retaining differences.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
In Wednesday’s address, marking the start of her second term, Tsai reiterated her call for “peace, equality, democracy and dialogue” in relations across the Taiwan Strait, as introduced in her speech following her win in the Jan. 11 presidential election.
She also reiterated her rejection of Beijing’s use of “one country, two systems,” saying that the model was designed to downgrade Taiwan and undermine the cross-strait “status quo.”
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) on Wednesday said that China’s goal of “peaceful reunification” with Taiwan under the “one country, two systems” framework remains unchanged.
However, Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party government has undermined cross-strait relations by refusing to recognize the “1992 consensus,” Ma added.
Commenting on Ma’s statement at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee, Chen said that “a page in history has already been turned,” so there is no longer any need to discuss the “1992 consensus” further.
Told by reporters that China appears to have not yet “turned the page,” he said: “We will wait for them to catch up.”
The focus of all nations — including Taiwan and China — is recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Chen said, adding that recovery plans need a “peaceful, stable environment,” which both sides of the Strait have a responsibility to uphold.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,