Taiwan Authorities Urged to Follow One-China Principle

China Thursday urged the Taiwan authorities to strictly abide by the common understanding reached in 1992 between the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan's Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) that each of the two organisations should express verbally that "both sides of the Taiwan Straits adhere to the One-China principle."

Foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said at a press conference that the Taiwan authorities have misinterpreted the One- China principle.

The purpose of such a move by the Taiwan authorities is try to inject separatist ideas into the common understanding.

The Chinese government has always held that contact and discussion should be resumed as early as possible based on the One- China principle, and the key problem now is that the Taiwan authorities do not recognize the One-China principle and are not sincere about improving relations, Zhu said.

Once the Taiwan authorities make a commitment to abandon the " two-state" idea and to follow the common understanding reached in 1992, negotiations can begin, he said.

People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/