Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/05/21
By: Chen Chia-yu and Lilian Wu
Taipei, May 21 (CNA) Taiwan will continue to communicate with China to maintain cross-strait
“The MAC will continue to communicate with the other side of the Taiwan Strait to uphold the mechanism of cross-strait dialogue and contacts,” said MAC deputy minister and spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正).
There have been concerns over whether channels of communication between the MAC and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) — the two bodies in charge of cross-strait policy-making — and the two cross-strait intermediaries — Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS)– can be continued under the new administration led by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
Beijing has insisted that Tsai’s government accept the “1992 consensus” that underpinned Taiwan-China relations during the eight years her predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), was in office, something she and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have been unwilling to do. [FULL STORY]