Argh!
This article [CN] shows everything that's wrong with the DPP message on cross-strait relations. President Ma Ying-jeou recently made a big deal about that DPP policy in an interview with media, and there he rhetorically asked Tsai Ying-wen if the DPP accepted the 92 consensus.
Tsai responded by saying how the 92 consensus doesn't exist; just ask President Lee Teng-hui or Koo Chen-fu, Lee's President of the Straits Exchange Foundation and the man who would have been in charge of any talks held under a "'92 consensus."
But Tsai completely misses the larger point, namely, that the DPP cannot accept the '92 consensus because of its definition. The '92 consensus is defined as "Taiwan and China both belong to One China," and the KMT government likes to add a flourish: "The Republic of China is that One China."
No matter which definition you use, it does not reflect reality and it is not at all reasonable. Nor does it reflect the average Taiwanese person's opinion.
If the DPP could remember that not everyone watches their political talk shows every day, maybe they'd realize how few people could tell you off hand what the '92 consensus is. And it's the act of getting that definition out which will win people over to the DPP's side.
4 comments:
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I agree completely!
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Real or not, it is what enables Taiwan and China to hold talks. Even if it weren't the outcome of the 1992 talks (and AFAIK the term was created in 2000 but the talks and agreement it describes did happen but under a different name), if the DPP try to shift the goalposts and negotiate under some other term, it might mean an end of talks which most would agree is not desirable.
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Anonymous,
It is NOT what enables "Taiwan" and China to hold talks.
It is what gives pretense to the KMT for selling Taiwan out to China.
In other words, the KMT needs the 1992 so-called "consensus" (that never happened) for propaganda purposes to give the illusion that there is some kind of "equity" standard agreed upon -- which, of course, there isn't.
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a-gu:"But Tsai completely misses the larger point, namely, that the DPP cannot accept the '92 consensus because of its definition."
I don't think she missed the larger point.
To "not accept" any theory, the theory has to exist in the first place. If Tsai fought back like you said, it would means that she recognizes the '92 consensus' exists. That would be a huge mistake.
In fact, I believe that's exactly the way the KMT wants the DPP to react --- to accept its existence by denying its meaning. Tsai didn't fall into that trap.
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