CRI听力:Chinese Mainland and Taiwan Should Uphold One-China Principle: State Council

Ma Xiaoguang serves as a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office. At a news conference on Wednesday, Ma said the One-China Principle has clearly defined the fundamental nature of the relations between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

"In 1992, the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Strait of the Chinese mainland and the Straits Exchange Foundation of Taiwan announced that the affairs between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan should be discussed under the one-China principle. After the talks in Hong Kong in October and a series of ensuing correspondence, the two sides reached an verbal consensus that the Chinese mainland and Taiwan should stick to the one-China principle, which is the 1992 Consensus. Its core content is that both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan belong to one China and their relations are not state-to-state relations."

Ma was commenting on recent remarks by chair of Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive Party Tsai Ing-wen. Tsai said on Sunday while she did not deny the 1992 meeting, there were other ways to interpret the event.

Ma says the historical records of the 1992 meeting should not be doubted. He added the consensus has served as the common political basis for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

"It is on this common basis that a lot of important results have been made for the peaceful development of the cross-Strait relations, the peace and stability have been maintained across the Strait, and the people on both sides of the Strait have shared the dividends of peace. And it is on this basis that the cross-Strait relations have improved and developed, bringing real benefits to the people on both sides."

During the November meeting between Xi Jinping and Ma Ying-jeou, the two sides agreed to set up a hotline to promote cross-Strait relations through communications, on the basis of the 1992 Consensus. Ma says the hotline is already in operation.

"After the meeting, the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office has closely communicated and worked with the Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan for the establishment of the hotline. Today, it is officially put into operation."

The spokesperson reveals that the chiefs of cross-Strait affairs from both sides have used it to speak to each other.

As another follow-up from the Xi-Ma meeting, the mainland will send another 500 students to Taiwan to pursue undergraduate studies in 2016.

Ma says students from Beijing, Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Liaoning and Hubei will be added to the program, which already enrolls students from Guangdong and Fujian Provinces. The move will increase the total enrollment of mainland students in Taiwan to 1,500.

For CRI, I'm Wang Mengzhen.