Former Presidential Office secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) on Saturday rejected former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claim that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had been a proponent of Beijing’s “one China” principle.
Lee, who served as president from 1988 to 2000, died in Taipei on Thursday last week.
After visiting the Taipei Guest House on Saturday to pay his respects to Lee, Ma posted on Facebook that “28 years ago on this day” Lee hosted a session of the now-defunct National Unification Council, during which he passed a resolution on the “one China” principle.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kun, Taipei Times
That resolution became the basis of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) “one China, with different interpretations” framework that formed the foundation of the “1992 consensus,” Ma said.
The so-called “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
In his post, Ma had called upon the public to “remember the historical importance of this resolution,” which he said both sides of the Taiwan Strait persistently promoted.
In August 1992, the year the resolution was passed, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits worked out a consensus on what “one China” means, and it was on the basis of that agreement that cross-strait relations developed prosperously through Ma’s presidency from 2008 to 2016, Ma said.
Huang said that Ma was “immoral and insincere for distorting history at a time like this.”
Huang — who in 1992 was Ma’s superior, serving as Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) minister, while Ma was a deputy minister — said the meeting in Hong Kong where Ma said the “1992 consensus” was reached was a routine encounter to review documents.
“How could there possibly have been discussions on national sovereignty issues at that meeting?” Huang said.
Prior to the meeting, Beijing had repeatedly insisted that Taiwan accept its “one China” principle, which Taiwanese officials up to that point had refused to do, Huang said, adding that during that meeting, no consensus was reached on any issue.
During a press conference following the meeting, Ma, who was also the MAC spokesman, even said the meeting was a failure, Huang said.
“How can Ma now say there was a ‘1992 consensus’?” he added.
Lee’s main purpose in establishing the National Unification Council was to discuss Taiwan’s internal policies related to unification, Huang said, adding that the body would not have passed any resolutions on the issue, nor would it have met with Chinese officials to discuss it.
Lee and former SEF chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) had both previously denied there was a “1992 consensus,” Huang said.
Ma choosing to assert otherwise after Lee passed away was “immoral,” he said.
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