Majority of Taiwanese supports peace with China: KMT vice chair

Taipei and Shanghai, June 15 (CNA) Most people in Taiwan are supportive of peaceful cross-Taiwan Strait relations, an official with Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) said Saturday while in China for the annual Straits Forum.

The two sides of the Taiwan Strait should continue many of the positive practices of the past, KMT Vice Chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) told Wang Huning (王滬寧), chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, before the event.

Later, in his speech at the forum being held in Xiamen, Lien reiterated the KMT's commitment to cross-strait peace and exchanges on equal footing, and stressed the party's adherence to the "1992 consensus" and opposition to Taiwan independence.

Also at the forum, Wang said the "1992 consensus" and the "one-China principle" are important to ensuring peace across the Taiwan Strait.

The 1992 consensus is a tacit understanding that the KMT said was reached in 1992 by the then KMT government and the Chinese government.

It has been interpreted by the KMT as an acknowledgement by both sides that there is only "one China," with each side free to interpret what "China" means.

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) rejects the consensus and refuses to use it as a basis for dialogue with China, as the KMT did when it was in power from 2008 to 2016, because it implies that Taiwan is a part of China, as Beijing claims.

The one-China principle even more clearly states that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and is also rejected by the DPP.

The 16th Straits Forum, an annual conference between China and Taiwan since 2009, featured grassroots, youth, cultural and economic exchanges this year.

In Taiwan, the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan's top government agency in charge of cross-strait affairs, said earlier this week that the forum is a united front platform of the Chinese Communist Party and that it was not favorable to see personnel from local governments in Taiwan attending such an event.