Beijing slams Taiwan’s DPP over cross-strait ‘chaos’, warns of rising risk of war if 1992 consensus not heeded

Separatist activities are ‘incompatible’ with cross-strait peace, Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office says in fresh warning to the island’s ruling DPP

The party’s presidential candidate and front runner William Lai has been labelled as a separatist by Beijing

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DPP presidential candidate and Taiwanese Vice-President William Lai with running mate Hsiao Bi-kim, in Taipei on November 20. Photo: AP

Published: 7:42pm, 29 Nov 2023Updated: 7:58pm, 29 Nov 2023

Beijing has slammed “pro-independence forces” in Taiwan for sowing chaos in the Asia-Pacific region, while once again warning of the rising risk of war if the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party continues to challenge its sovereignty.

“Taiwan separatists are incompatible with peace in the Taiwan Strait and a source of chaos affecting the stability of the Asia-Pacific region,” Chen Binhua, a spokesman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, which oversees cross-strait ties, said on Wednesday.

“To bring cross-strait relations back to the right track of peaceful development, and ensure the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait, it is necessary to return to the 1992 consensus that embodies the one-China principle,” he said, referring to an agreement Beijing sees as the basis of cross-strait ties.

However, the 1992 consensus – an unofficial agreement that there is only one China but the two sides may disagree about what that means – was reached when Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang, was in power.

President Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning DPP has refused to accept it since coming to power in 2016.

Taiwan votes on January 13 to elect a successor to Tsai, and DPP candidate William Lai Ching-te remains the front runner, according to the latest polls. Beijing describes Lai, who has promised to retain Tsai’s policies, is a separatist.