President Ma: expand foreign relations on basis of '92 consensus, constitution

The statement came today in an RTI interview. After rambling a bit about how Taiwan hopes to improve relations with China and what a breakthrough Lien Chan's appearance at APEC was, we get to the key passage:

The host asked about to alleviate the suspicion that Taiwan's soverignty would be lost [due to the government position]. The President responded saying he believes throughout the history of cross-strait relations, some DPP members and opposition figures have had strong views on this topic. But if one carefully examines the six agreements that have been signed with the mainland to date, Ma said, not a single one degrades Taiwan or sacrifices Taiwan's sovereignty, and he has never heard anyone clearly explain a point to the contrary.

The President pointed out that the ROC has not changed since its inception, and he is still the president of the ROC. Some people have said that the government's acceptance of the '92 consensus is the reason relations have been going so smoothly, that and the '92 consensus does not harm national sovereignty. Ma said he believes the 92 consensus is "One China, two interpretations," that the constitution is a "One China" constitution, and the government wants to discuss matters with the mainland on these terms; sovereignty has not been harmed in any way.

The President expressed that in the past, the DPP government did not understand priorities, and made mainland recognition of "one side, one country" a precondition for talks. Not only was this not effective, but in fact made it impossible to deal with other important priorities, and increasingly isolated Taiwan.

This final bolded point is simply false, as the DPP continually proposed talks without preconditions, while the Chinese precondition was acceptance of "One China." The DPP hoped to enter dialogue in a situation where there was hope for continual de facto independence with some chance of eventual de jure independence. The current KMT position is that Taiwan is not independent from China, as they are both the same country (the ROC), and as long as China will talk on that basis, nothing bad will happen.

And as far as the first bolded point, let me explain: whether you call it the ROC or the PRC, agreeing that Taiwan is a part of the One China gives Taiwan little choice on the question of unification or independence, because you've already decided it, and the position will obviously not result in ROC control over the mainland. To the contrary.

Update: Also, see this on the next round of talks, from ICRT:

The Mainland Affairs Council has said that the agenda for the third
cross-strait meeting will be finalized by the end of this December, or early
January at the latest.

According to M-A-C Vice Chairman - Fu Dong-cheng - an initial agenda was for
the third round of talks was debated when the head of China's Association for
Relations Across the Taiwan Straits visited Taiwan last month.

However ... Fu admitted that there are still some differences to be worked
out om the exact agenda for further talks ... but that a finalized agenda for
the next round of talks will be ready within the coming months.

Reports have said that the signing of a memorandum of understanding on
financial cooperation is one of the issues on the agenda, as well as the
possible establishment of a cross-strait crime mechanism and a strengthening
of food safety measures.