Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-11
By: Staff Reporter

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council criticized opposition Democratic Progressive Party chair Tsai

Tsai Ing-wen, right, visits a bookstore offering books from Southeast Asia on Friday. (Photo/Meng Siang-jie)

Ing-wen for “empty words” and avoiding expressing the party’s cross-strait policy clearly after Tsai said the party will shoulder the responsibility of “maintaining the status quo,” reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

The council published a press release on Friday, saying that Tsai’s remarks were merely rhetoric and avoided expressing her stance on cross-strait issues. The council said the key for peaceful cross-strait relations over the past few years is the current Taiwanese government’s recognition of the 1992 Consensus.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office, also reiterated that the consensus which allows for one China but is flexible as to what this means, has been the political foundation for the cross-strait relation’s peaceful and remarkable progress over the past seven years, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency. He warned that policies such as “one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait” and “Taiwan independence” will destroy peaceful development. The official also said the consensus “acknowledges that the Chinese mainland and Taiwan were one and the same China.”     [FULL  STORY]