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China pressure to increase ahead of 19th Congress: MAC

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China pressure to increase ahead of 19th Congress: MAC

China pressure to increase ahead of 19th Congress: MAC

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Infighting in China in the run-up to next year’s 19th Communist Party Congress will lead to increased pressure on Taiwan, a deputy minister at the Mainland Affairs Council said Friday.
The congress, which is held once every five years, is scheduled for the autumn of 2017 and will see changes at the top of the leadership, even though President Xi Jinping is widely expected to stay on for another term as general secretary of the party.
Domestic developments in China had to be watched because they also played a part in cross-straits relations, MAC Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng told a seminar in Taipei Friday.
Xi was obviously totally unprepared to give way on issues of territorial sovereignty, which would restrict Chinese policies toward Taiwan, Chiu said. Infighting between communist officials to obtain promotions at the 19th Congress would lead to increased pressure on the Taiwan issue, according to some academics, Chiu said.
The MAC official called on China to notice and accept expressions of goodwill from Taiwan, and said the government’s task was to maintain existing channels of communication, even if the other side did not use them. The government will also value the achievements of past cross-straits interaction, Chiu said.
In China, the public demanded stability due to the fall of average economic growth from double figures to just 6.7 percent, while the economic decline was met on the political scene by an even stronger concentration of power in an authoritarian leadership, Chiu was quoted as saying.
Ever since President Tsai Ing-wen took office last May 20, China has refused to talk directly to her administration due to her refusal to accept the so-called “1992 Consensus,” usually described as “One China, Each His Own Interpretation.”
In a statement on the occasion of the Democratic Progressive Party’s 30th anniversary earlier in the week, Tsai said Taiwan should continue to resist China’s pressure and develop its international relations.