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Taiwan reiterates premises for peace pact with China

ROC Central News Agency

2012/11/09 14:32:18

Taipei, Nov. 9 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou would promote a peace agreement with China under "three premises," but signing such an accord is not on his priority list for his second term in office because the conditions are not yet mature, an official said Friday.

Hu Jintao, China's top leader who is due to step down as general secretary of the Communist Party of China soon, said at the opening in Beijing of the party's 18th National Congress a day earlier that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should reach a peace agreement through consultation "so as to open a new horizon" in advancing peaceful growth of bilateral ties.

Responding to media inquiries about his views on Hu's call, Mainland Affairs Minister Wang Yu-chi said on the sidelines of a seminar marking the 20th anniversary of the "1992 consensus" that cross-Taiwan Strait negotiations have been following the principles of "urgent and easy issues first, then harder ones; and economic issues first, then political ones."

"At present, many practical and technical issues are still pending consultations and solutions by the two sides," Wang said.

Noting that Ma has said on many occasions that there is no timetable for his administration to promote the signing of a cross- strait peace accord, Wang said the president has also made it clear that three major premises must be met before any step toward that goal will be considered.

"The three premises are that the pact must meet the actual needs of our country, win the strong support of our people and be supervised by our Legislature," Wang explained.

Before the government promotes the signing of a cross-strait peace pact, Wang continued, a referendum on such a proposal will need to be held.

On Hu's reference -- in probably his last major address a day earlier -- that the two sides of the strait should uphold the common stance of following the "1992 consensus" in expanding common ground and set aside their differences, Wang said it marked the first time that China has included the consensus supposedly reached by the two sides in 1992 in any official documents.

The "1992 consensus" refers to a tacit understanding between Taipei and Beijing on the idea of "one China with both sides free to interpret the meaning of `one China.'"

"There is no question that the `1992 consensus' is the basis for cross-strait engagements," Wang added.

(By Scarlett Chai and Sofia Wu)