Chinese mainland spokesman reiterates 1992 Consensus

The key to maintaining peaceful development of relations across the Taiwan Strait is to accept the 1992 Consensus, which endorses the one-China principle, a mainland official said Wednesday.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, warned of the dangers of deviating from the 1992 Consensus at a press conference.

"Without the political foundation of 1992 Consensus, institutionalized liaison and communication mechanism across the Strait will surely be affected, or even collapse; and the ship featuring peaceful development of cross-Strait relations will encounter terrifying waves, or even capsize," Ma said.

The 1992 Consensus was reached by the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) in November 1992 in Hong Kong.

The core of the 1992 Consensus is that the Chinese mainland and Taiwan belong to "one China" and their relations are not "country-to-country" relations, Ma said.

The spokesman made the statement in response to reporters' requests for comment on the remarks of Tsai Ing-wen, the chair of Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive Party.

At a TV debate for the Taiwan leadership election on Sunday, Tsai said that she did not deny the historical facts of the meeting between the ARATS and the SEF in 1992, but noted there were different views on how to interpret the event.

"Both the meeting itself and the meaning of the 1992 Consensus reached after the meeting have complete records and should not be doubted," Ma said.

Adhering to the 1992 Consensus has been the common political ground for the mainland and Taiwan. This has brought about peaceful and stable relations across the Taiwan Strait as well as substantial benefits for people on both sides, he said. Endi