Taiwan to continue to communicate with China: MAC
ROC Central News Agency
2016/05/21 22:37:41
Taipei, May 21 (CNA) Taiwan will continue to communicate with China to maintain cross-strait dialogue and contacts, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Saturday.
"The MAC will continue to communicate with the other side of the Taiwan Strait to uphold the mechanism of cross-strait dialogue and contacts," said MAC deputy minister and spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正).
There have been concerns over whether channels of communication between the MAC and China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) -- the two bodies in charge of cross-strait policy-making -- and the two cross-strait intermediaries -- Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS)-- can be continued under the new administration led by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
Beijing has insisted that Tsai's government accept the "1992 consensus" that underpinned Taiwan-China relations during the eight years her predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), was in office, something she and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have been unwilling to do.
China reaffirmed Saturday that only by insisting on the "1992 consensus" can cross-strait exchanges be maintained.
TAO spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) said that when the heads of the TAO and the MAC first met in Nanjing in February 2014, they decided to establish a regular communication mechanism between the two bodies under the "1992 consensus."
Ma Xiaoguang noted that the TAO and MAC have had active exchanges over the past two years and established a cross-strait hotline and handled many complicated and sensitive issues.
He stressed that only by reaffirming the 1992 consensus, "which fleshes out the common political foundation of the one China principle," can cross-strait communications be extended.
The ARATS has expressed similar remarks.
(By Chen Chia-yu and Lilian Wu)
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