Taiwan's Ma will not visit China
High five: Taiwan's President-elect Ma Ying-jeou (L) gives running mate Vincent Siew a high five after a news conference with the international media in Taipei yesterday.Picture: Reuters
Monday, March 24, 2008
TAIWAN'S president-elect Ma Ying-jeou said yesterday he wanted a "mutual non-denial" agreement with China and vowed to work to lay the groundwork for a century of peace and prosperity.
Speaking the morning after sweeping to a landslide victory, Ma promised to improve relations with China which still claims sovereignty over Taiwan but said he had no plans to visit anytime soon.
In a wide-ranging news conference here, he also reiterated his support for autonomy for Tibet in the wake of China's military crackdown in the Himalayan region.
The Harvard-educated opposition Kuomintang candidate won 58 per cent of the vote Saturday, trouncing his ruling party challenger by almost 17 points and earning the congratulations of US President George W Bush.
Ma said he backed a 1992 consensus between Beijing and Taipei, under which both accepted the formula of 'one China' but agreed to interpret it in their own way.
"The sovereignty issue has been the most intractable issue across the Taiwan Strait," Ma acknowledged. "It's a question between conflicting claims."
He said the old policy of each side denying the other's right to exist was in the past, but mutual recognition was "out of the question" too.
Mutual non-denial was the middle road "we will not deny their existence but we cannot recognise their sovereignty" over Taiwan.
China has threatened an invasion if Taiwan declares independence, leaving the US-allied island in a murky limbo.
Ma has vowed to work to improve trade, tourism and transport links and to work for a peace treaty to end decades of hostilities since Taiwan split from the mainland in 1949 after a civil war by returning to the 1992 consensus.AFP
Speaking the morning after sweeping to a landslide victory, Ma promised to improve relations with China which still claims sovereignty over Taiwan but said he had no plans to visit anytime soon.
In a wide-ranging news conference here, he also reiterated his support for autonomy for Tibet in the wake of China's military crackdown in the Himalayan region.
The Harvard-educated opposition Kuomintang candidate won 58 per cent of the vote Saturday, trouncing his ruling party challenger by almost 17 points and earning the congratulations of US President George W Bush.
Ma said he backed a 1992 consensus between Beijing and Taipei, under which both accepted the formula of 'one China' but agreed to interpret it in their own way.
"The sovereignty issue has been the most intractable issue across the Taiwan Strait," Ma acknowledged. "It's a question between conflicting claims."
He said the old policy of each side denying the other's right to exist was in the past, but mutual recognition was "out of the question" too.
Mutual non-denial was the middle road "we will not deny their existence but we cannot recognise their sovereignty" over Taiwan.
China has threatened an invasion if Taiwan declares independence, leaving the US-allied island in a murky limbo.
Ma has vowed to work to improve trade, tourism and transport links and to work for a peace treaty to end decades of hostilities since Taiwan split from the mainland in 1949 after a civil war by returning to the 1992 consensus.AFP
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