Military confrontation is never a good option for resolving differences between Taiwan and China, Minister of Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said Friday while urging Beijing to look at the issue with a fresh perspective.
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait are obligated to work out solutions to maintain peace and stability, Chiu said as he delivered the opening speech at a forum in Taipei about the dynamics of China’s leadership and governance.
In response to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) who recently reiterated that China would never renounce the use of force to unify Taiwan, Chiu called on Xi to refrain from threatening Taiwan with its military.
“Military confrontation is by no means a good option for resolving differences between Taiwan and China, nor is it a blessing for the people on both sides,” Chiu said at the forum hosted by the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies.
“We hope that the other side (of the Strait) would break from the outdated political mindset and have an open attitude to improve cross-strait relations,” Chiu said.
Since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) came to office in 2016, Beijing has cut off communications with Taipei and suspended nearly all official exchanges between the two sides because Tsai refused to recognize the so-called “1992 consensus.”
The “1992 consensus,” under which Taiwan and China agreed that there was only one China, with each side free to interpret what that meant, was seen by China as a precondition for positive cross-strait relations.
The previous Kuomintang (KMT) administration accepted the “1992 consensus” formula but Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party government considered it tantamount to recognition of Beijing’s “one China” principle.
Chiu called on Beijing to resume dialogue and exchanges with Taiwan without setting any political prerequisites because Taiwanese people reject its “one China” principle and plan to unify Taiwan under the “one country, two systems” model.
Over the past 73 years since the Republic of China government relocated to Taiwan in 1949 following the Chinese civil war, both sides of the Taiwan Strait have been ruled by two political entities “in no way subordinate to each other,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, asked about National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Chen Ming-tong’s (陳明通) recent remarks that China could use force to coerce Taiwan into accepting its terms for unification, Chiu said Beijing did not set a timeline for unification at the recently concluded Chinese Communist Party’s 20th National Congress.
However, Beijing has clearly stated that unifying Taiwan is indispensable to its goal of realizing the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” and is expected to continue to use both coercive measures and soft power to achieve this goal, Chiu said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel