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Taiwan’s New President Ma Ying-jeou
Taiwan’s new president Ma Ying-jeou took
the oath of office on May 20, 2008.
In his inauguration address, Ma called for cross-strait negotiation based
on the “1992 consensus” and emphasized his campaign pledge to strengthen
ties with China. Per KMT, the “1992 consensus”
describes the notion that both sides concede separate interpretation of the
“one China”
policy. That means, from China’s
point of view , that there is only one China “People’s Republic of China’ (PRC)
in the world; while allow Taiwan
to keep using “Republic of China” (ROC) as nation’s name The fact is that there is no such
consensus being reached during the meeting between the representatives from
Taiwan and China way back in 1992.
However, KMT and Ma Ying-jeou kept mentioning it in many occasions. In his speech, Ma urged Beijing to seize the
historic opportunity to jointly open a new page of peace and
prosperity. Ma suggested
maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait
under the framework of the ROC constitution and the principle of “no
unification, no independence and no use of force”. Ma opposed Chen Administration’s
move to de factor independence.
His new policy will represent a clear break from the eight-year
administration of Chen Shui-bian. The State Department spokesman Sean
McMormack said in a statement “We congratulate Ma Ying-jeou on his
inauguration. We look forward
to working with Taiwan’s
new leaders and maintaining the vibrancy of our economic and
people-to-people relationship. We welcome initiatives to reduce tension in
the Taiwan Strait”.
Posted: June
4, 2008
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