Chinese President Xi Jinping says Beijing’s policy on Taiwan ‘to remain consistent’ after Tsai Ing-wen takes office

Beijing’s policy on Taiwan ­remains clear and consistent irrespective of the “change in Taiwan’s political situation”, President Xi Jinping told mainland legislators on Saturday in his first public remarks on cross-strait relations since the island’s main pro-independence opposition party won presidential and legislative elections in January.

Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s president-elect, is due to be sworn in this May, posing uncertainty over its relations with the mainland.

Xi’s Taiwan affairs chief told reporters earlier yesterday on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress that cross-strait relations were “at a crucial juncture” between a path of peaceful development or a risky change to the status quo.

Xi said at a panel discussion on Saturday with a delegation of Shanghai legislators that the mainland would try not to let people down across the Taiwan strait as they expected a peaceful development of the two sides’ relationship, state television reported.

He insisted that “1992 Consensus”, which states the “one China” principle, was the basis for strengthened economic ties and integration between Taiwan and the mainland. “Our policy on the relationship with Taiwan has been clear and consistent,” he said. “Our policy won’t change after political changes in Taiwan.”

The 1992 Consensus on the “one China” policy allows Taiwan and mainland China to interpret the phrase in their own way.