China-Taiwan | President Tsai calls for continued communication across Strait

Tsai Ing-wen

Taiwan’s government will continue to look for ways to maintain dialogue with China, President Tsai Ing-wen says, after Beijing said it had halted a regular communication mechanism with Taipei, Reuters news agency reported yesterday.
According to the dispatch, China, which regards the self-ruled island as a wayward province, is deeply suspicious of Ms Tsai, who took office last month, since Beijing suspects she will push for formal independence.
Ms Tsai, who heads the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, says she wants to maintain the status quo and is committed to ensuring peace.
But China has insisted she recognise a pact called the “1992 consensus” between its Communists and Taiwan’s then-ruling Nationalists, by which both agreed there is only one China, with each having its own interpretation of what that means.
On Saturday, China said because Taiwan’s new government would not recognize that principle, it had stopped the regular communication mechanism between the two sides.
“No matter what party is in government in Taiwan, we always have a single, common objective: to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” Ms Tsai told reporters during a visit to Paraguay, Taiwan’s sole diplomatic ally in South America.
“We will continue the dialogue with mainland China, as even though, probably at this moment official negotiation channels have been temporarily interrupted, there still exist other options for communication and dialogue,” she said, speaking through an interpreter, according to the agency.
Reuters added that yesterday Taiwan Premier Lin Chuan said the government’s approach was for positive interactions with China to continue.
“There must be willingness on both sides to move forward on the relationship,” Mr Lin told reporters about the suspension issue at a function in southern Taiwan, as quoted by Reuters.
But in Beijing, a spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office signaled there would be no compromise, saying the “1992 consensus” had been the basis for improved relations since 2008, when the China-friendly Ma Ying-jeou became president and signed a series of landmark trade and tourism deals with China, Reuters reminds. MDT/Agencies