Exposing the “One China” Principle

In 1992, when the governments from both sides across the Taiwan Strait began having contacts, both of them, at the People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s request, expressed verbally, and in relation to functional issues, that they advocated the “one China” principle, though what “one China” actually meant was open to different interpretations, and the shift that elevated the 1992 “one China” interpretations from the functional level to the political level did not occur until April 2005. Since President Tsai Ing-wen was sworn in and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) became the ruling party of the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan in early 2016, the PRC has used Tsai’s rejection of this so-called “1992 consensus” as a pretext to discontinue all intergovernmental communication channels with the ROC on Taiwan, while also cutting down on cross-strait civil exchanges in travel and education. This thinkpiece article aims to scrutinise this “one China” principle, how it has developed over the years, and expose its underlying realities