Beijing, Taipei cannot afford stalemate in cross-strait relations, US official warns
Relations between the mainland and Taiwan cannot afford any “stalemate or crisis”, a senior US official has cautioned in the countdown to the swearing in of the island’s president-elect Tsai Ing-wen.
Susan Thornton, US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told Taiwan’s Central News Agency it was too early to say whether such a stalemate already existed, but both Beijing and Taipei needed to make an effort to advance cross-strait ties.
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Thornton’s remarks came as a senior figure in Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party said her inauguration speech would not violate the “spirit” of the 1992 meeting between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, even though the pro-independence party refuses to recognise the “1992 consensus”.
Beijing says the consensus must form the foundation of any dialogue or warming of ties.
The consensus is an understanding that the mainland and Taiwan are part of “one China”, but leaves room for interpretation as to which regime has the legitimate claim to represent it.
Beijing has appeared concerned over whether Tsai will explicitly acknowledge it during her inauguration on May 20.
Cross-strait ties have been strained recently, particularly by a dispute over the repatriation of Taiwanese suspects to the mainland in a telecoms fraud case.
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The DPP’s Frank Hsieh told Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun it would be hard for Tsai’s government to speak about the one-China principle given the negative public opinion surrounding the term. But he said the DPP acknowledged the 1992 meeting and its “spirit”, and that Tsai’s pledge to promote cross-strait relations “under the constitutional arrangement of the Republic of China” should conform to the spirit of the 1992 meeting. Republic of China is Taiwan’s official name.
People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece, warned if Tsai and the DPP chose to refuse, dodge or fudge the 1992 consensus and failed to give up their advocacy of independence, they would bring “uncertainty and turmoil” to cross-strait ties.
“The newly elected leader of Taiwan’s [pledge to] maintain the status quo would become empty words. It is only the DPP government that will need to bear the responsibility and the consequences,” it said.
