Democratic Progressive Party - China Policy
Mainland China and Taiwan 07 November 2015 held their first summit since they were separated in 1949. China's President Xi Jinping and Taiwan's President Ma Yi-jeou began their meeting at a hotel in Singapore. The meeting lasted about one hour. Arriving before members of the media, the 2 leaders greeted each other with a handshake and a smile. In their opening remarks before going into a closed session, Xi and Ma referred to each other as 'Mister' without using their official titles. This was in line with an earlier agreement between the two sides.
Tsai Ing-wen, who heads the Democratic Progressive Party and was considered the front-runner in Taiwan's presidential election, said she was disappointed Ma made no reference to preserving the island's democracy and freedom during his historic meeting.
Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a warning against people appealing for an independent Taiwan. The director of China's State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhang Zhijun, held a news conference after the first summit between mainland China and Taiwan. Zhang quoted Xi as saying that secessionist activity by Taiwanese pro-independence forces is the biggest threat to peaceful development of cross-strait ties. Xi said they will only create misfortunes by stirring up hostility and confrontation, damaging national sovereignty and territorial integrity, destroying cross-strait peace and stability and preventing development of cross-strait relations. Xi's remarks are taken to being aimed at the DPP opposition candidate in Taiwan's presidential race.
China nervously watched for any more hostility in Taiwan before the island’s early 2016 presidential race. Ma must step down that year due to term limits, and his seat may go to Taiwan’s main opposition Democratic Progressive Party. That party takes a more cautious stance than Ma on relations with China.
Tsai's DPP stormed to a landslide victory over the China-friendly Kuomintang party on a platform of maintaining the island's quasi-sovereign status.
Taiwan's new president, Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said in her inaugural speech 20 May 2016 that she "respects" the historical fact of the talks across the Taiwan Strait in 1992, when both sides arrived at "various joint acknowledgements and understandings." In 1992, the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) in Taipei and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), arrived at various joint acknowledgements and understandings through communication and negotiations, Tsai said.
"It was done in a spirit of mutual understanding and a political attitude of seeking common ground while setting aside differences," she said. "I respect this historical fact." Since 1992, interactions and negotiations across the strait over the years have accumulated outcomes which both sides must cherish and maintain, she said.
Despite the mention of the 1992 talks, Tsai did not mention the term "1992 consensus" in her inaugural speech. Both Beijing and Taiwan's outgoing government under President Ma Ying-jeou had said that the consensus should serve as a foundation for relations between Taiwan and China. The consensus refers to an understanding that both sides agree there is only one China with each side free to interpret its meaning.
China expressed its dissatisfaction with the inauguration speech of Taiwan's new president Tsai Ing-wen, describing it as an "incomplete test paper." The Taiwan Affairs Office under the State Council said "On the fundamental question of the nature of cross-strait relations that people on the two sides of the strait are most concerned about, (Tsai) adopted a murky attitude."
Relations with Beijing hit an impasse in the five months since Tsai's China-skeptic Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took office in May. Tsai's rejection of the "one China" concept, which recognizes Taiwan has part of China's territory, prompted the Chinese government to halt communications with the island.
President Tsai Ing-wen called on 10 October 2016 for China to resume diplomatic talks with the self-ruling island, but said she would not "bow to pressure" over the issue of sovereignty. In a speech marking Taiwan's National Day, Tsai urged both governments to "set aside the baggage of history and engage in positive dialogue. .... The two sides of the strait should sit down and talk as soon as possible ... Anything can be included for discussion, as long as it is conducive to the development of cross-strait peace and the welfare of people on both sides."
However, she said that Taiwan "will not bow to pressure," stopping short of conceding the key principle demanded by China for talks to resume: recognition that Taiwan is part of its territory – what the two countries refer to as the "1992 consensus, which acknowledges that Taiwan is part of a single China, but allows both entities to interpret who is the ruler.
Tsai said that China should "face up to the reality" of the Taiwanese government's existence and of the island's democracy. The island currently only enjoys diplomatic relations with 22 countries due to China's interference.
Though Tsai had been careful not to speak openly about independence, she hasn’t supported the conciliatory China policy pursued by her Nationalist Party predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou. Tsai’s ruling DPP has also declined to endorse a so-called consensus reported to have been agreed to in 1992 by China and Taiwan when the island was ruled by the Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party. DPP supporters contend that there’s little documentation to show that any consensus was agreed upon. At the same time, Tsai has taken a pragmatic approach by calling for a continuation of the status quo with China.
Taiwan was expected to adjust its largely hands-off stance toward political rival China by 2020, following losses for the ruling party in local elections in November 2018, while still holding a middle ground between independence and unification. Election results handed 15 of Taiwan’s 22 top local seats to candidates from the opposition Nationalist Party, which today advocates closer China relations including a resumption of the dialogue that its government carried out before 2016.
The government of President Tsai Ing-wen may take a slightly more accommodating stance toward China, some analysts believe, possibly by focusing on economic relations over politics. Conversely, some say, the government could swing further toward Washington to resist China. Tsai faces pressure to do something palpable before the Taiwan presidential race of 2020. Tsai is eligible for reelection in 2020, likely against an opposition candidate who openly backs stronger China ties.
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