20110922 Ex-president says he never supported ‘1992 consensus’

Ex-president says he never supported ‘1992 consensus’

By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter

Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday accused People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) of failing to relay his message to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and lying to an official from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) by saying he recognized the so-called “1992 consensus.”

During his visit to China in May 2005, Soong broke a pledge to relay his four-point message of “sovereignty, democracy, peace and reciprocity” to Hu, Chen wrote in an article published yesterday.

Instead, Soong discussed his own cross-strait initiative of “two shores, one China” (兩岸一中) with the Chinese leader, Chen wrote in his latest column, dated Sept. 11, discussing US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.

Chen denied a cable saying that Soong told then-AIT director Douglas Paal in May 2005 that Chen recognized the existence of the “1992 consensus” and that he had described the cross-strait meeting in Hong Kong in 1992 as “inspiring and fruitful.”

The Hong Kong meeting did take place, Chen said, but no consensus was reached.

In response to a pair of AIT cables in 2005, Chen said he had no idea throughout his eight-year tenure as president that the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) New Tide faction had maintained a separate communication channel with officials from the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office since 1997 and that they had secretly visited China without notifying him.

The DPP faction, the cable reported, was led by former Straights Exchange Foundation chairman Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌), former National Security Council secretary-general Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) and former DPP secretary-general Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁).

Another cable reporting that he had tried to remove Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) as premier during the Red Shirt protest in 2006 was not true, Chen said.

He was not the one who told independence supporters that he was opposed to having then-vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) take over as president if he stepped down, Chen wrote.

However, a number of DPP heavyweights did express their opposition to Lu taking over as president, Chen said, citing a diplomatic cable as evidence.

A cable sent by AIT in November 2006 reported that Su had told then-AIT director Stephen Young that Lu was “unpredictable” in her behavior and thinking, and that a Lu presidency “is something that most DPP members fear.”

“Su laughed and said that he would resign before Lu has a chance to dismiss him,” the cable said.

Chen is serving a 17-and-a-half-year jail sentence for corruption and money laundering.