MAC appeals to Beijing to recognize Taiwan's good will
ROC Central News Agency
2016/07/22 23:25:18
Taipei, July 22 (CNA) Taiwan hopes China can understand that its recognition of the historical fact that understandings were reached between the two sides in 1992 is an important and friendly declaration, a Taiwanese official said Friday.
"Since May 20 when the government led by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took office, it has reiterated that it respects the historical fact that several joint acknowledgments and understanding were reached between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in 1992," said Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正), a deputy minister of the Mainland Affairs Council.
"The government will handle cross-strait affairs in line with the Constitution and the Act Governing Relations between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area," he told CNA.
"It is the joint responsibility of the two sides to maintain cross-strait peace and stability, and both sides should have the wisdom and patience to achieve the goal through dialogue."
Chiu said the keeping the mechanisms that already exist will be conducive to developing positive relations. "So our doors will always be wide open for cross-strait consultations," he said.
Chiu was responded to comments by Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), who said earlier Friday that "only by upholding the 1992 Consensus as the political foundation could the peaceful development of cross-strait ties be maintained."
He also stressed that communication mechanisms between the MAC and TAO or negotiation mechanisms between the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation and Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits must be based on that political foundation.
Ma's remarks came after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in an interview earlier this week with the Washington Post that she has done her best to narrow her government's differences with China and rejected a supposed deadline for Taiwan to accept a precondition laid out by Beijing for the continuation of relatively warm ties.
In the interview, Tsai was asked if it was true, as some academics have suggested, that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has set a deadline by which he wants her to agree to the so-called 1992 consensus.
"Taiwan is a highly democratic place, where the trend of public opinion is very important," the president said. "So the chances are actually not high for Taiwan to accept a deadline to meet some conditions laid out by the other side against the will of the people," Tsai said, according to a transcript released by the Presidential Office on Friday.
The 1992 consensus refers to a tacit agreement following talks in Hong Kong in 1992 between China and Taiwan's Kuomintang government that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait agree there is only one China but each side is free to interpret what it means.
The agreement on the concept of one China paved the way for improved cross-strait ties during former President Ma Ying-jeou's two terms of office that lasted until two months ago. Tsai's pro-independence DPP has never accepted the 1992 consensus.
Tsai said she had already done her best in her inaugural speech to minimize the differences between the positions of the two sides of the strait, and she believes that the Chinese realize the good will contained in her May 20 speech.
(By C.L Chen and Flor Wang)
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