1992 Consensus - 21st-century Developments

21st-century Developments

The PRC has stated that any group in Taiwan with which it has formal talks must support the 1992 Consensus.

In a speech on 10 October 2004, then president Chen Shui-bian expressed his willingness in initiating dialogue with PRC leaders on "the basis of the 1992 meeting in Hong Kong". This formulation however presumes that no agreement on one China was made in the 1992 meeting, and Chen's speech was widely seen as an effort to establish a basis for negotiations with the PRC without accepting the one China principle. The PRC did not respond to his speech favourably and no dialogues were initiated.

The 1992 Consensus was invoked again the following year, when KMT's chairman Lien Chan and People's First Party (PFP) chairman Song Chu-Yu made separate trips to Mainland China to begin party-to-party dialogue between the CCP and KMT and between the CCP and PFP. Both leaders explicitly endorsed the 1992 Consensus.

During the debates between then KMT candidate Ma Ying-jeou and DPP candidate Frank Hsieh in the lead-up to the 2008 presidential election, Ma stated that 1992 Consensus undoubtedly existed, and that while the DPP were entitled to disagree with it, they could not deny its existence. Furthermore, he stated that the agreements reached in the 2005 Pan-Blue visits to mainland China, which occurred on the basis of the 1992 Consensus could, if it was beneficial to the people, be developed into policy and thence into law, and put into practice.

The election of the KMT to the ROC government saw both sides of the Taiwan strait moving closer to a common interpretation of the Consensus. In March, PRC's state news agency Xinhua in its English website reported a telephone discussion between the PRC president Hu Jintao and his counterpart George W. Bush. The agency reported that it is PRC's "consistent stand that the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan should restore consultation and talks on the basis of the 1992 Consensus, which sees both sides recognize there is only one China, but agree to differ on its definition". However, Xinhua's Chinese version of the report only stated that the resumption of the talks should be on the basis of the 1992 Consensus without expanding into the meaning of the Consensus.

In his inauguration speech on 20 May 2008, ROC president Ma Ying-jeou stated that in 1992 the two sides of the strait reached a consensus which saw "one China with different interpretations" and the ROC would resume talks with the PRC as soon as possible based on the 1992 Consensus.

On 28 May 2008, KMT Chairman Wu Po-hsiung met Hu Jintao as CPC Chief in Beijing at Hu and the CPC's invitation to engage in a party-to-party dialogue. In the meeting, the parties expressed that both sides across the strait will lay aside disputes, and work for a win-win situation on the basis of the 1992 Consensus. As well as the party-to-party channel, the semi-governmental dialogue channel via the SEF and the ARATS is scheduled to re-open in June 2008 on the basis of the 1992 Consensus, with the first meeting held in Beijing. The first priority for the SEF-ARATS meeting will be the establishments of the three links, especially direct flights between mainland China and Taiwan.

Weekend direct chartered flights between mainland China and Taiwan commenced on 4 July 2008 subsequent to the successful cross-strait talks in June 2008.

On 2 September 2008, the ROC President Ma Ying-jeou was interviewed by the Mexico based newspaper Sol de México. He was asked about his views on the subject of 'two Chinas' and if there is a solution for the sovereignty issues between the two. The ROC President replied that the relations are neither between two Chinas nor two states. It is a special relationship. Further, he stated that the sovereignty issues between the two cannot be resolved at present, but he quoted the 1992 Consensus, currently accepted by both sides according to Ma, as a temporary measure until a solution becomes available. The spokesman for the ROC Presidential Office Wang Yu-chi (Chinese: 王郁琦) later clarified the President's statement and said that the relations are between two regions of one country, based on the ROC Constitutional position, the Statute Governing the Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and Mainland Area and the 1992 Consensus.

On 12 January 2011, Xinhua news agency reiterated Beijing's position on this issue by defining the 1992 Consensus as saying that "under which both sides adhere to the One-China Principle."