‘Serious setback’ risk for cross-Strait ties
Print Edition
CROSS-TAIWAN Strait relations will face a serious setback if the 1992 Consensus, under which both sides recognize there is one China, is not their political foundation, a Chinese mainland spokesman warned yesterday.
Ma Xiaoguang, of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, was responding to a question on whether a hotline between cross-Strait affairs officials on both sides would be suspended following the island’s leadership election on January 16.
Tsai Ing-wen, the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party candidate, won the election, beating rival Kuomintang candidate Eric Chu.
The hotline, launched on December 30, aims to facilitate communication on important and urgent cross-Strait problems, allowing senior officials to speak directly to one another.
Cross-Strait relations have achieved progress thanks to upholding the 1992 Consensus and opposing Taiwan “independence,” Ma told a press conference.
If the two sides maintain this political foundation, progress is safe, he said.
It was his understanding that the two sides had not spoken on the hotline recently.
Commenting on a proposal from senior DPP legislator Ker Chien-ming that the two sides reopen negotiations on an already signed service trade agreement, Ma said the mainland’s first priority was that the political foundation of cross-Strait talks should be upheld and the authority of signed agreements safeguarded.
The two sides have held a dozen rounds of negotiations on the commodity trade agreement since 2011. Whether negotiations will continue depends on future communications and cross-Strait ties, Ma said.
Commenting on an Internet “fight” on Facebook, Ma said young people from both sides should strengthen exchanges in order to develop a better understanding of cross-Strait relations.
Tens of thousands of mainland residents bombarded Tsai’s official Facebook page with anti-independence messages following her presidential election victory.
Asked whether the mainland would be tightening the quota of tourists visiting Taiwan, Ma denied that the mainland had set a cap on the number of tourists that can visit the island.
He said the quota for tourists was made by Taiwan and that the number of Taiwan-bound tourists varied depending on travel agencies and the tourists themselves.
The number of mainland tourists visiting Taiwan is estimated to have hit 3.4 million in 2015, the Taiwan affairs office said yesterday, and Ma said the mainland remained the biggest contributor of tourists to the island.
About 9.86 million people made cross-Strait trips in 2015, 4.7 percent more than the year before, he said. Taiwan residents made 5.5 million visits to the mainland while mainland residents made about 4.36 million visits to the island, an increase of 2.47 percent and 7.73 percent respectively over 2014.
The growth was largely attributable to the mainland’s removal of entry permit requirements for Taiwan residents and an increase in cross-Strait flights to 890 per week.
In terms of flight transfers, Ma said the mainland’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation were coordinating on the issue.
Flight transfers through Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport will be the first limited flights to or from the cities of Nanchang, Kunming and Chongqing. The three cities are popular outbound tourist departure cities in central and western China.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
