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PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE AGAIN DENIES SO-CALLED '1992 CONSENSUS'

Central News Agency

2005-05-11 17:31:01

    Taipei, May 11 (CNA) The Presidential Office renewed Wednesday the Democratic Progressive Party administration's denial that Taiwan and China reached consensus on the definition of "one China" in their landmark 1992 negotiations in Hong Kong -- the so-called "92 Consensus."

    Responding to various representations of the "92 Consensus" put forth in recent days in the wake of visits to China by two opposition leaders, the Presidential Office reiterated that there is no such thing as the "92 Consensus."

    The officials pointed out that there is a complete archive recording the process and results of the cross-strait official negotiations in Hong Kong in 1992 when the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) was still in power in Taiwan.

    Taiwan delegates during that meeting included the late former chairman of Taiwan's quasi-official intermediary Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and former SEF Secretary-General Shi Hwei-yow, who has on many public occasions explained that there was no consensus, the officials said.

    Noting that none of the people attending the 1992 Hong Kong talks have ever mentioned a "92 Consensus" before or after the talks, the officials said that the so-called consensus is nothing but a "new name" created by Su Chi, former chairman of the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council, in April 2000.

    Since the 1992 Hong Kong meeting is a historical event and reality and since President Chen Shui-bian has reiterated many times that both sides of the Taiwan Strait could resume dialogue on the basis of their 1992 Hong Kong talks, history should not be "changed, misinterpreted or misrepresented" by anybody because of the changed political landscape, the officials said.

    The consensus that the KMT claims was agreed upon by Taiwan and China during the 1992 negotiations is considered by Beijing as the basis for its engagement with Taiwan. Beijing insists on Taiwan's acknowledgement of the consensus as a condition for the resumption of bilateral dialogue.

    Both of Taiwan's largest opposition parties -- the KMT and the People First Party (PFP) -- claim that the "92 Consensus" allows for "separate definitions of the meaning of 'one China.'"

(By Deborah Kuo)

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