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KMT voices concerns over drills in meeting with Chinese official

ROC Central News Agency

08/25/2022 08:21 PM

Taipei, Aug. 25 (CNA) Opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) on Wednesday expressed concerns of Taiwan's public over China's recent military live-fire drills around Taiwan during a meeting with China's top Taiwan affairs negotiator Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), the KMT said in a statement issued late that day.

Hsia, who is on a multi-city visit to China to meet with Taiwanese who live and work there, had dinner with Zhang, the head of China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), in Kunshan in Jiangsu Province, the KMT said in the statement.

During the meeting, they exchanged views on a range of issues, including intensified Chinese military maneuvers surrounding Taiwan earlier this month.

ARATS and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) are intermediary organizations founded in 1990 to handle cross-strait affairs in the absence of formal relations.

Hsia noted during the meeting that since his trip was aimed at conveying the views of Taiwanese people, he intended to be outspoken, saying that above all, he wanted to convey their discontent and apprehension about the large-scale live-fire drills that the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted starting on Aug. 4, according to the statement.

The nearly week-long drills were staged in response to a visit by United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan from Aug. 2-3 and other U.S. moves seen as departing from the U.S. one-China policy.

He and Zhang also discussed issues such as agricultural product quarantine and inspection, China's suspension of the imports of some Taiwanese products, and rumors about the cancellation of the product list for tariff reductions by China under the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).

Hsia also told Zhang that he had received complaints from China-based Taiwanese about the shortage of cross-strait flights and he also expressed their hope for the restoration of the three mini-links regarding the ferry services between China and Taiwan's offshore islands, which were suspended in February 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Therefore, Hsia suggested that the two sides of the strait should soon cooperate to resume normal cross-strait civilian exchanges and ensure the rights and interests of people on the two sides.

Noting there is no immediate solution to the cross-strait stalemate in the short term, Hsia said he believed the most important issue at present is to avoid cross-strait political conflict from hindering the development of economic and trade cooperation between the two sides.

Meanwhile, China's Taiwan Affairs Office issued a statement late Wednesday that Zhang, the former head of the office, said during the dinner that the Chinese military maneuvers around Taiwan were "an act of justice" in the fight against Taiwan independence and foreign interference in Taiwan's affairs.

Zhang also said that given the complicated situation in the Taiwan Strait, the common political foundation of the 1992 consensus and opposition to Taiwan independence should be upheld to strengthen communication between the two sides to jointly safeguard cross-strait peace and stability.

The 1992 consensus refers to a formula embraced by the previous KMT administration, under which the Republic of China (the ROC, Taiwan's official name) and the People's Republic of China (the PRC, China's official name) agreed that both sides belonged to "one China," with each side free to interpret what that meant, according to the KMT's definition, whereas China defines the consensus as simply meaning both are part of the PRC.

Commenting on the meeting between Hsia and Zhang, Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), a legislator of Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party, on Thursday accused the KMT of issuing contradictory statements.The KMT claimed before Hsia departed for China that his trip was mainly to meet Taiwanese living and working there and not to meet with Chinese officials but he in fact had dinner with Zhang, Lo said.

Lo slammed the KMT for using meetings with China-based Taiwanese as an excuse to conduct negotiations and talks with the Chinese Communist Party, and not making the process of meeting between Hsia and Zhang transparent.

(By Wang Yang-yu, Fan Cheng-hsiang and Evelyn Kao)

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