More than 80 percent of Taiwanese do not accept the “one country, two systems” formula and a majority reject the existence of the so-called “1992 consensus,” a survey published yesterday by the Cross-Strait Policy Association found.
Asked whether they supported Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) proposal of a “one country, two systems” model for unification, which would make Taiwan a local government and eliminate the Republic of China (ROC), 80.9 percent answered “no” and 13.7 percent said “yes.”
Even among respondents who identify with the pan-blue camp, the majority — 64.7 percent of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supporters and 63 percent of People First Party supporters — rejected the formula, the survey found.
In addition, 68.5 percent did not think Beijing’s “one China” principle has room for the ROC, versus 25.5 percent who believed it does.
As for the “1992 consensus,” 55.7 percent of respondents did not think it exists, while 34.1 percent thought otherwise, with pan-blue supporters generally believing in its existence, the poll showed.
The “1992 consensus” — a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
However, Xi in a speech in Beijing on Wednesday last week said that it means “both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait belong to ‘one China’ and will work jointly to seek national unification.”
Seventy-eight percent of respondents agreed with President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) stance that cross-strait political negotiations need a mandate from the people, should be subject to public scrutiny and must be carried out by the governments on both sides of the Strait.
