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2012 ELECTIONS: ‘1992
consensus’ not vital for cross-strait talks: forum
By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
The so-called “1992 consensus” should not be used as a campaign tool to threaten
Taiwanese and it is not a prerequisite for cross-strait engagement as President
Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Beijing have said, academics said at a forum yesterday.
The consensus never existed and the international community, in particular the
US, has never forced Taiwan to accept it as a precondition for further
engagement across the Taiwan Strait, they said at a forum to examine the
consensus. The conference was organized by the Taiwan Brain Trust, which is
generally perceived to be more sympathetic to the pan-green camp.
The ratio of Taiwanese investment in China to Taiwan’s GDP increased from 0.5
percent in 2000 to 2.61 percent in 2008 — the period during which the Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP) was in power, National Taiwan University professor
Kenneth Lin (林向愷) said.
He said it was ironic that the DPP has been labeled as “turning its back on
China,” and yet investment growth shows that the lack of a “1992 consensus” had
no impact on bilateral trade liberalization.
Despite this, Ma’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) and a group of Taiwanese businesspeople and investors in China have banded
together to force the consensus on the Taiwanese public, he said.
The Ma campaign has recently focused its energy on the consensus, saying that
denying its existence would put cross-strait peace in jeopardy, and threaten
economic and political developments, Taiwan Brain Trust researcher Liu Shi-chung
(劉世忠) said.
Ma has repeatedly said that China and the US have both accepted “one China, with
different interpretations” as the basis of the “1992 consensus,” but Liu said
“that was not the case as the US has maintained that it takes no position on the
consensus and Beijing has never publicly supported Ma’s claim.”
Liu voiced concern that should Ma be re-elected, it might be interpreted as a
public endorsement of the consensus.
The DPP’s attitude toward the consensus is based on three facts, said Lai I-chung
(賴怡忠), a researcher at Taiwan Thinktank who is in charge of the DPP’s China
policy.
“First, the 1992 meeting between Taiwan and China did take place, but no
consensus was reached. Second, Beijing has never accepted Ma’s interpretation of
the consensus as ‘one China, with different interpretations.’ Third, bilateral
exchanges, such as meetings, the ‘small three links’ and direct charter flights
were carried out without the ‘1992 consensus’ as a precondition,” he said.
“That shows it is possible for Taipei and Beijing to hold dialogue and engage
with each other even without the ‘consensus,’” he said.
Although the DPP does not recognize the consensus, Tsai has refrained from
making provocative comments and has extended an olive branch to Beijing during
her campaign, including offering to hold talks with or visit China without any
preconditions, he said.
Her policy has been more flexible than Ma’s, who has pledged he would neither
negotiate with China on political affairs, including unification, nor meet with
Chinese leaders if he is elected to a second term, Lai said.
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