China said Saturday (Jun 25) that communications with Taiwan had been suspended after the island's new government failed to acknowledge the concept that there is only "one China".
Relations between the two sides have grown increasingly frosty since President Tsai Ing-wen won Taiwan's leadership by a landslide in January and took office in May, ending eight years of rapprochement.
Beijing and Taipei have held regular, official communications since 2014, but that has now stopped, according to China's Taiwan Affairs Office.
"The bilateral communication mechanism has been suspended," TAO spokesman An Fengshan said on its website.
Although Taiwan is self-ruling after splitting with the mainland in 1949 following a civil war, it has never formally declared independence and Beijing still sees it as part of its territory awaiting reunification.
Beijing is highly suspicious of Tsai, whose Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which replaced the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) party in government, is traditionally pro-independence and has warned her against any attempt at a breakaway.
Beijing said it had cut contact because Taiwan had refused to acknowledge the "1992 consensus" - a tacit agreement made between Chinese officials and the KMT that there is only "one China" but each side is allowed its own interpretation.
Tsai's presidential predecessor Ma Ying-jeou recognised the consensus and oversaw an unprecedented thawing of ties from 2008 to when he left office in May.
But, while Tsai has said she wants to maintain peaceful relations with China, she has not backed the consensus or the "one China" concept.
Her presidential victory tapped into voter fears that Beijing was eroding Taiwan's sovereignty through closer ties, and that trade agreements with China were being made secretly, benefiting big business, rather than ordinary residents.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/26/2016 00:00 ||
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I believe that was a common refrain from Berlin in late 1940...
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on June 25 that the EU would weather the shock of the British vote to leave the union as he convened crisis talks.
"I am confident that these countries can also send a message that we won't let anyone take Europe from us," he said heading into a meeting in Berlin of his counterparts from the EU's six founding members.
His French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault urged quick negotiations on Britain's exit from the union, saying that the pressure would be "very strong" on British Prime Minister David Cameron at an EU summit on June 28 to speed up the process.
That is right and indeed should be the way it's done: if I were in charge of the negotiations I'd start them at the time the appetizers are served and would have them wrapped up by dessert...
Cameron, who on June 24 announced his resignation by October in the wake of the referendum, said it should be his successor who leads the complex negotiations under Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty which sets out a two-year timeframe to leave.
Steinmeier called the European Union "a successful project of peace and stability"
...for the Germans...
and said that there was a "strong desire" within the bloc to defend and strengthen it.
You might ask the Greeks and Portuguese about that...
"I think it is absolutely clear that we are in a situation in which neither hysteria nor paralysis are permissible," he said.
"We must not rush headlong into hectic action, pretending we had all the answers. But we must also not fall into depression or inaction after the British decision."
Steinmeier hosted Ayrault, the Netherlands' Bert Koenders, Italy's Paolo Gentiloni, Belgium's Didier Reynders and Luxemburg's Jean Asselborn in a lakeside villa north of the city center.
Ayrault said he and Steinmeier, whose countries long represented the twin-engine of European integration, were working on joint proposals that could deepen cooperation among EU members that use the euro currency, or bolster security and defense coordination.
Steinmeier said the ministers would discuss joint action on the refugee influx, the unemployment crisis and security during their meeting.
If there is anything the EU does well, it's to hold discussions...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/26/2016 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
