Date: January 11, 2019
MAC Press Release No. 2
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) issued the following solemn statement today (January 11, 2019) in response to comments by the spokesperson for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), quoting statements made by President Tsai Ing-wen to the Legislative Yuan on the 1992 talks during her tenure as MAC Minister out of historical context and maliciously attacking the MAC:
1. The MAC is an agency formally established under the Organizational Act of the Executive Yuan and its amendments passed by the Legislative Yuan. It is absolutely not an illegitimate agency or so-called “black agency" in Chinese. Since taking office in 2016, President Tsai has been highly consistent and never "flip-flopped" on her Mainland policy. Therefore, the MAC solemnly refutes these deliberately abusive and inappropriate comments by KMT spokesperson which wrongly labeled the Tsai administration as a "black-hearted company" and described the MAC as a "black-hearted agency."
2. At a regular press conference yesterday (January 10, 2019), presided by MAC Minister Chen Ming-tong, the MAC repeatedly explained that the focal point of statements made at the Legislative Yuan by President Tsai, then MAC Minister during Chen Shui-bian's administration from Year 2000, was to declare that then Lee Teng-hui's administration's position on "one China with respective interpretations" was not accepted by the Mainland side. Yet, KMT confuses one thing for another by repeatedly and falsely claiming President Tsai's statement on the facts of 1992 SEF-ARATS talks indicates her acceptance of "one China with respective interpretations" during Chen Shui-bian's administration. This is highly regrettable. We hope that the KMT will stop making such false statements.