The China Post
Date: June 26, 2016
By: Christopher Bodeen, AP

BEIJING — Beijing said Saturday it had cut off contact with the main Taiwan liaison body because of President Tsai Ing-wen’s refusal to endorse the concept of a single Chinese nation, ratcheting up pressure on the new Taiwanese leader.

In a statement posted on the website of the Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office, spokesman An Fengshan said contacts between bodies responsible for ties had been suspended starting from Tsai’s May 20 inauguration.

“Because the Taiwan side has been unable to confirm the “1992 Consensus” that embodies the common political foundation of the one-China principle, the mechanism for contact and communication between the two sides has already been suspended,” the statement quoted An as saying.

The “1992 Consensus” refers to an arrangement made in 1992 under which both sides acknowledged the existence of a single Chinese nation comprising both Taiwan and the mainland. That understanding underpinned dialogue between the sides that allowed them to build ties and partially overcome enmity stemming from their bitter split amid the Chinese civil war in 1949. Tsai has neither formally endorsed nor repudiated the construct.     [FULL  STORY]