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Beijing Says "No!" to Official Contacts with Taiwan
A central official recently told news media that the mainland will have no direct contacts with "official bodies" of Taiwan, this is our consistent principle and it remains unchanged.
In the past there was a proper channel agreed by both sides for cross-Straits talks, that was through the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). But now the channel has been blocked since the Taiwan authorities turned back on the 1992 consensus and therefore destroyed the basis for cross-Straits talks.
According to Taiwan's Wen Wai Po, the Taiwan side lately announced that talks must be turned from non-governmental into governmental through official contacts between the mainland and the island, a statement that has drawn wide attention. While the central official points out that the idea doesn't show any sincerity from the Taiwan side but the wording as "official bodies" just an interpretation of "Two Chinas" and "One China, One Taiwan".
Lately Taiwan's "Mainland Affairs Council" issued a written statement saying that "the Republic of China is a state of independent sovereignty which is not subordinate to the People's Republic of China", an open declaration of "Two Chinas".
The central official reiterated the "One China" principle in handling cross-Straits relations, that is, there is only one China in the world, the mainland and Taiwan both belong to the "One China" and the nation's sovereignty and territory can by no means be split.
The official further says that implication of "One China" could be discussed later. Talks between the two sides should be equal and we don't ask Taiwan's recognition of the People's Republic of China before we talk. Any cross-Straits talks, if not evilly purposed, can be accepted. In 1992 the two sides reached consensus on "One China" and this led to the Wang Daohan--Koo Chen-fu talks and talks between the two organizations. Even at that time there were no direct contacts and talks between official institutions. Now the Taiwan authorities should be held fully responsible for disavowing the consensus and cutting links between the two organizations.
Now the authorized ARATS and SEF have lost contacts because Taiwan authorities refuse to accept the "One China" principle, not to speak official links.
The so-called "welcome the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council to become a direct channel for cross-Straits talks" by Taiwan authorities is nothing but a little trick played before voters preparing for legislators runoff at the yearend, a Taiwan paper quotes a mainland scholar as saying.
Experts point out that the reason of long-term absence of cross-Straits contacts lies with the Taiwan authorities disavowing "1992 consensus", not accepting the "one China" principle. Under such circumstances it is even more impossible to place cross-Straits talks on an official level.
The mainland will directly make contacts with SEF if it expresses clearly its embrace of the "one China" principle. The deadlock will surely continue if SEF still stands together with Taiwan authorities.
By PD Online Staff Li Heng
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