• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Tsai shows flexibility, good will on cross-strait ties: MAC

ROC Central News Agency

2016/05/20 23:13:37

Taipei, May 20 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) showed maximum flexibility and good will on cross-Taiwan Strait ties based on the existing reality in her inaugural address, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Friday.

To demonstrate her determination to deal with cross-strait affairs pragmatically, the president said she wanted to develop consistent, predictable and sustainable relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, the MAC said in a statement issued in response to comments by China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) earlier Friday.

Although Tsai pledged in the speech that she will continue to promote stable and peaceful ties with China, the TAO expressed dissatisfaction with her comments.

While noting that Tsai said the two sides "arrived at various joint acknowledgments and understandings" in 1992, the TAO said she did not clearly recognize the "1992 consensus" or agree to its core meaning.

She also did not propose concrete ways to guarantee the stable and peaceful development of the cross-strait relationship, it 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," the TAO said in a statement.

The office described the speech as "an incomplete test paper," and it reiterated China's resolve to deter "splittist Taiwan independence in any form."

In response, the MAC reaffirmed its stance to safeguard the stable and peaceful status quo across the strait and called for rational communication and dialogue between the two sides.

Peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is the common responsibility of Taiwan and mainland China and this is also the highest expectations of the international community and people on both sides, the MAC stressed.

It urged the two sides to leave historical rancor behind, cherish the fruit of past exchanges with an open mind and jointly protect the existing communication mechanism.

(By C.L Chen and Flor Wang)
enditem/ls