Taipei Times
Date: Mar 01, 2016
By: Peng Hsien-chun / Staff reporter

Not too much should be read into Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) mention of Taiwan’s Constitution, Soochow University professor and former DPP legislator Julian Kuo (郭正亮) said yesterday.

When asked about the future of cross-strait relations at a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) forum last week, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said that he “hoped and expected” that president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) would “accept the provision in Taiwan’s own Constitution that the mainland and Taiwan belong to one, the same China” before taking power on May 20.

While Wang appeared to equate the constitutional provision with Beijing’s “one China” principle, his remarks drew attention because they were reportedly the first time Beijing officials have explicitly mentioned the Constitution instead of referring to “Taiwan’s laws and relevant regulations.”

They also drew notice for mentioning the “political foundation of cross-strait relations” without explicitly referring to the so-called “1992 consensus.”

The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Beijing that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.    [FULL  STORY]