The Tsai administration must provide a functional roadmap towards calming animosity and developing positive relations with China, writes Kent Wang.
The News Lens
Date: 2019/01/28
By: Kent Wang
Credit: Reuters / Tyrone Siu
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Jan. 2 speech reiterated Beijing’s policy of “peaceful unification” with Taiwan and proposed launching a cross-Strait consultation on using the “one country, two systems” framework for unification.
In response, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) rejected the “1992 consensus” with more force than ever before, saying Xi had equated the so-called agreement to governance under “one country, two systems” – which, if it were to take the form of Hong Kong, could see shots ultimately called in Beijing.
The “1992 consensus” has been at the center of a partisan conflict between the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which does not recognize the consensus, and the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), which allegedly brokered the agreement in a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials in 1992.
Tsai has received plaudits for her rejection of the consensus. However, what if she is, in fact, deliberately misinterpreting a perfectly functional agreement? [FULL STORY]
