President Tsai Ing-wen on Sunday reiterated her call for China to resume official dialogue with Taiwan. Tsai’s call came at the Taipei Dome during a large gathering of overseas compatriots who have returned to Taiwan for the national day celebrations on Monday.
Tsai said that regional peace requires the efforts of all involved. She said the Republic of China will stand by its promise to build sustainable and predictable cross-strait relations and to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait and the status quo of Taiwan’s democracy. Tsai stressed that her administration will not succumb to pressure from Beijing, but it also will not revert to confrontation.
Beijing officials have all but cut off communication with Taiwan since Tsai took office in May. That’s because of President Tsai’s refusal to voice support for the 1992 Consensus, which her predecessor had used as a way of engaging China. Under the consensus, the two sides agree that there is “one China” with each side reserving their own interpretation of what that means.
Tsai on Sunday called for Beijing to quickly resume talks in order to deal with a variety of different issues.