Breaking | Fundamental consensus: semi-official cross-strait talks rest on 1992 deal, Beijing tells Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen
Beijing said on Wednesday that revival of a semi-official consultation channel with Taipei hinged on Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen authorising Taipei’s side to recognise the 1992 consensus on the “one China” principle.
The remarks came as Tsai, who is visiting Paraguay, said her government would continue to look for ways to maintain dialogue with the mainland.
Beijing suspended communications with Taipei when Tsai failed to publicly acknowledge the consensus in her inauguration speech last month. Beijing says the consensus is the political foundation of its dealings with Taipei.
“No matter what party is in government in Taiwan, we always have a single, common objective: to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” Tsai said during her official visit to Asuncion, Taipei’s diplomatic ally in South America.
“We will continue the dialogue with mainland China, as even though, probably at this moment, official negotiation channels have been temporarily interrupted, there still exist other options for communication and dialogue.”
In Beijing, An Fengshan, spokesman for the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, blamed Taipei for the suspension of official and semi-official communication channels.
Semi-official channels include talks between the mainland’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (Arats) and Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).
On such a fundamental question, ambiguity is of no avail
An said key to ensuring the semi-official contact was whether the SEF would be authorised to confirm its adherence to the 1992 consensus. “On such a fundamental question, ambiguity is of no avail,” An said.
Tsai remains undecided on the appointment of the new SEF chairman, despite having been in office for a month.
Analysts said Beijing was showing Tsai and her independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party another option to handle fragile cross-strait ties.
Liu Guoshen, head of Xiamen University’s Taiwan Research Institute, said Beijing’s stance on Taiwan had been consistent and clear. “Beijing is not implying but telling [Tsai] that if there are difficulties on the official level to recognise the 1992 consensus, civil organisations can play a role with endorsement from authority.”
While it is technically a private organisation, the SEF remains under the control of the Taiwanese government.
“The key problem is not [the attitudes of] the Mainland Affairs Council or the SEF,” Professor Alexander Huang Chieh-chen, director of the Institute of Strategic Studies and the Institute of American Studies at Tamkang University, said.
“Taiwan needs to consider [a wide range of views] to see if it can reach an agreement [on its cross-strait stance] that is also acceptable to Beijing.”
Additional reporting by Reuters.
