Not much chance of meeting between Tsai and Xi: official
ROC Central News Agency
2016/03/08 16:13:32
Taipei, March 8 (CNA) The likelihood of a meeting between Taiwan's President-elect Tsai Ying-wen (蔡英文) and Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) is not great, the head of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said Tuesday.
Hsia Li-yen (夏立言) noted that China has repeatedly said there must be a firm basis for any meeting between the leaders on the two sides of Taiwan Strait.
Given the current situation, however, there is not much chance that the two sides would reach any consensus on the issue of a meeting between their leaders, Hsia said in response to questions in a legislative hearing.
China has less trust in the Democratic Progressive Party than in the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Hsia told People First Party Legislator Chen Yi-chieh (陳怡潔), who was asking about a recent comment by Tsai that she would not rule out the possibility of a meeting with Xi.
Chinese leaders have repeatedly warned that cross-strait ties would suffer if Tsai's government does not adhere to the '1992 consensus' after it takes office on May 20.
Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party do not recognize the '1992 consensus,' which the KMT government says is a tacit cross-strait agreement reached in 1992 that there is only one China, with each side free to interpret what that means.
Responding to another question in the Legislature, Hsia said a proposal by China to construct a high-speed rail line that would link Beijing and Taipei is out of the question.
The plan is implausible, not only in terms of technology, but also politically, he said.
'This is a matter that involves Taiwan, and they (China) do not have a unilateral say,' Hsia added.
The project was mentioned in a draft of China's 2016-2020 development plan that was released Saturday in Beijing.
(By Wen Kuei-hsiang and Lilian Wu)
Enditem/pc
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
