Taiwan News
Date: 2016-05-11
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – President-elect Tsai Ing-wen will emphasize her defense of the status quo in cross-straits relations but stop one step short of accepting the “1992 Consensus,” reports said Wednesday.

With her swearing-in as president and her inauguration speech coming up on May 20, speculation has mounted as to what she will say about China. Beijing has even stated that her speech would influence Taiwan’s presence at the World Health Assembly in Geneva which opens on May 23.

China has kept harping on the need for Tsai to accept the “1992 Consensus,” an alleged agreement reached at a meeting between Taiwanese and Chinese delegations in Hong Kong in 1992. The outgoing Kuomintang government has said the formula means that there is only one China, but that each side can have its own interpretation of what that China means. Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party have said there was no such consensus, since Beijing officials only mention the “One China” part of the formula, and not the phrase about separate interpretations.

In her inauguration speech, Tsai will not mention the “1992 Consensus” and “One China,” but she will acknowledge that there was a meeting with positive results in 1992, Chinese-language Next Magazine reported Wednesday.     [FULL  STORY]