Beijing blast an ill wind for Taiwan’s cross-strait affairs moderate

Name: Beijing insists on ‘1992 consensus’ in response to first remarks by Taiwan’s new mainland chief
Uploaded: 2021-02-24T13:11:22.000Z
Duration: 1 min 18 s
Description: Beijing insists on ‘1992 consensus’ in response to first remarks by Taiwan’s new mainland chief

Chiu Tai-shan’s first remarks as head of Mainland Affairs Office described as deliberate attempt to ‘distort and confuse’

Linking of 1992 consensus and one country, two systems an ‘unacceptable’ attempt to blame Beijing for deteriorating relationship

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Chiu Tai-shan, Taipei’s new top mainland policy planner, said the Taiwan public found it difficult to accept Beijing’s “new interpretation” of the 1922 consensus. Photo: EPA-EFE

Lawrence Chung

Published: 9:11pm, 24 Feb 2021Updated: 3:36pm, 25 Feb 2021

Beijing has accused Taiwan’s new head of cross-strait affairs of deliberately distorting the context of the 1992 consensus in an attempt to lay the blame on the mainland for their deteriorating relationship.

Chiu Tai-shan’s appointment as head of the island’s Mainland Affairs Office was seen as an effort to ease tensions with Beijing, which regards acceptance of the consensus as a prerequisite for the resumption of talks.

But his remarks on assuming the post at a ceremony on Tuesday drew a sharp response from Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing, who described them as “unacceptable”.

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Beijing insists on ‘1992 consensus’ in response to first remarks by Taiwan’s new mainland chief

“This man deliberately mixed the 1992 consensus with “one country, two systems’ … in an attempt to distort it and create confusion,” Ma said.

The consensus – an understanding between the two sides that there is one China, but each can have their own understanding of what that means – was rejected by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016, leading Beijing to suspend official exchanges and step up military and diplomatic pressure on the self-ruled island.

Two years ago, Tsai’s government claimed President Xi Jinping had linked the consensus with one country, two systems – the model adopted for Hong Kong and Macau – in his 2019 new year message in which he proposed that Taiwan follow the Hong Kong model for unification.

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Why has the relationship between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan taken a turn for the worse?

Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province, to be returned to the mainland by force, if necessary.