Taiwan’s opposition KMT to uphold ‘one China’ consensus as part of cross-strait policy

Kuomintang says agreement is legal basis for exchanges with the mainland and has ‘allowed the two sides to find common ground’

The party was prompted to review policy amid pressure from younger members after election defeat

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KMT chairman Johnny Chiang has pushed to change the party’s position on the “one China” consensus. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 10:17pm, 2 Sep 2020Updated: 1:24am, 3 Sep 2020

Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang, has decided to keep the 1992 consensus on “one China” as part of its cross-strait policy, a move that is certain to please Beijing, which sees the self-ruled island as part of its territory.

The vague agreement was reached by unofficial representatives of Beijing and Taipei in Hong Kong nearly three decades ago – that there is only one China, but each side can have its own interpretation of what constitutes “China”.

For the KMT, it is the Republic of China – Taiwan’s official name for itself. In a meeting on Wednesday, the party said it would uphold the agreement, which was based on the ROC’s constitution, to maintain exchanges with mainland China.

“The 1992 consensus, with separate interpretations recognised by the KMT during its time in government [2008-16] was based on the ROC constitution,” the party said in a statement. “It successfully allowed the two sides to find common ground while setting aside their differences, and for this [we should] continue to use this to extend cross-strait exchanges.”

President Tsai Ing-wen has refused to recognise the agreement. Photo: EPA-EFE

Those exchanges have stopped and relations have soured since Tsai Ing-wen, of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, was elected president in 2016 and refused to recognise the agreement, saying Beijing no longer acknowledges that the two sides can have their own interpretations.