Taiwan inaugurated its first female president Tsai Ing-wen on Friday amid growing cross-strait tension and warnings from China that any ensuing regional conflict would be blamed on Taiwan and its new government.
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The comments came a day after Tsai’s inauguration speech, in which she called for “positive dialogue” with China, but stopped short of any compromise on Beijing’s demands that she support its “one China” principle.
Tsai’s party has previously called for formal independence from China.
Taiwan has been separately governed since 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek fled to the island after his Nationalist forces lost China’s civil war to Mao’s Communists.
Most Taiwan scholars and politicians said Tsai’s speech was full of good will, given that she not only pledged to abide by the constitution of the Republic of China – Taiwan’s official title, which contains the one-China concept, but also the Act Governing Relations Between People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area.
Beijing and Taipei have had regular, official communication since 2014, but that would stop unless Tsai acknowledges the so-called “1992 consensus”, Xinhua news agency quoted China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) as saying.
On the essential question of whether she will explicitly adhere to the political foundation of peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, her answer sheet was “incomplete”, said the commentary.
In Beijing, the Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office issued a statement noting Tsai’s reference to the 1992 meeting, but saying she had taken an “ambiguous stance” over the nature of the relationship between the sides.
He stressed that only by reaffirming the 1992 consensus, “which fleshes out the common political foundation of the one China principle”, can cross-strait communications be extended. Beijing claims the self-governing island as its own territory and says failing to endorse the one-China principle would destabilize relations.
Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a breakaway province, is deeply suspicious of Ms Tsai and her independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party and has been piling on the pressure for her.
Yesterday’s inauguration was festive, with bands and cheerleaders, and had presentations on Taiwan’s history.
As a result, they believe that maintaining the status quo is the best realistic option for Taiwan, subscribing to the view that the choice of either unification or independence is best left to the distant future. However, the essence and conditions of cross-strait relations under the Tsai presidency and the DPP government, and the state of the US-China relations will influence the “execution of these positive and friendly actions”.
“This is a speech that can be accepted by the worldwide community and endured by the mainland”, Li said, adding that Beijing will be watching what Tsai does in coming days as she forms her administration.
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Ing-wen has carefully avoided directly tackling the independence issue.
