Chinese Communist Party, Taiwan’s KMT must defend 1992 consensus as one, Beijing’s top cross-strait policymaker says
- Top Taiwan affairs leader Wang Huning calls on KMT to work with Beijing to ‘resolutely oppose’ Taiwan independence and external influence
- Any problem can be resolved ‘as long as maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait is our No 1 goal’, KMT vice-chair Andrew Hsia says in Beijing
The comments from Wang Huning, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee – Beijing’s top decision-making panel – and deputy head of the Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, came as he met Andrew Hsia Li-yan, a KMT vice-chairman currently leading a delegation to the mainland.
“On the basis of reinforcing the political foundation of the ‘1992 consensus’ and opposing ‘Taiwan independence’, the Chinese Communist Party and Kuomintang should deepen political trust, maintain interaction in a constructive manner and strengthen cooperation and exchanges,” Wang told Hsia at Friday’s meeting, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Wang was referring to a broad understanding reached between Communist Party and KMT negotiators in 1992, which stated there is only one China – in defining cross-strait relations.
But this consensus was rejected by Tsai Ing-wen, leader of Taiwan’s independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, when she won the 2016 presidential race.
Ties across the Taiwan Strait have deteriorated since then, with Tsai now in the final year of her second and last term.
02:23
‘Common responsibility’: Taiwan’s president calls on mainland China to resume dialogue
“[We should together] resolutely oppose interference by ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists and external influence, and work together in safeguarding peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Wang said, in what was seen as a veiled reference to Washington’s growing ties with the self-governed island.