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CHEN PROPOSES RESUMPTION OF CROSS-STRAIT TALKS BASED ON 1992 MEETING

Central News Agency

2005-05-16 22:20:24

    Taipei, May 16 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian has proposed that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait resume dialogue based on the results of a 1992 meeting in Hong Kong between delegates across the Taiwan Strait to break the cross-strait impasse, the nation's top China policy making body said Monday.

    The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) noted in a press release that delegates from the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation and the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait met in Hong Kong in 1992.

    The two sides failed to reach a substantive conclusion on the "one China" issue, but both sides agreed to put aside differences based on mutual understanding, which led to the first high-level talks the following year, according to the MAC press release.

    The MAC said that since June 1995, the Chinese authorities have tried to cite the unresolved dispute as the reason for the stalled cross-strait talks, but in recent years there has been controversy over whether there was a so-called "1992 consensus" reached wherein both sides agreed that there is "one China, " with each side free to interpret the meaning of "one China" as they wish.

    According to the MAC, the disputes vindicate President Chen Shui-bian's stance that there was no consensus in 1992, although in order to break the cross-strait impasses, Chen did propose that both sides can resume dialogue based on what was achieved in the Hong Kong meeting.

    The MAC stressed that Chen's proposal should serve as the basis for both sides to resume talks, adding that any other new phrase will lead to serious misunderstanding and will not be conducive to solving the cross-strait situation but will lead to further disputes.

    The MAC issued the news release after the recent visits to China by two opposition leaders -- Chairman Lien Chan of the Kuomintang and Chairman James Soong of the People First Party -- during which Lien and Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged to promote early resumption of cross-strait talks based on the "1992 consensus, " while Soong and Hu agreed to promote "two sides of the Strait, one China" which is simply a rephrasing of "1992 consensus" in resuming talks.

(By Lilian Wu)

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