Tsai's harmful prevarication

Even before she delivered her speech to mark the "national day of the Republic of China" on Tuesday, it was not difficult to predict what approach Tsai Ing-wen, the leader of the "independence" advocating administration on the island, would take with regard to cross-Straits relations.

It was thus no surprise that she continued to play her word games, saying Taiwan offered its greatest goodwill to the mainland, and carried on beating about the bush by calling for the continuation of contacts and talks between the island and the mainland, and the setting aside of political differences.

She knows as well as anyone that there is no hope of any breakthrough in cross-Straits relations unless her government explicitly upholds the 1992 Consensus, which requires both sides recognize that there is only one China.