A Warning from the Obama-Xi Paris Conference

At the Paris Climate Change Conference, U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping somehow brought the Taiwan issue back to the table. Xi stated, “It is in the common interests of China and the United States to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait … I hope that the U.S. will take concrete actions to support the peaceful development of the cross-strait relations.” Obama replied that the U.S. hopes to see stable development in cross-strait relations.

From a broader perspective, this is actually a major three-way dialogue. In the Sept. 25 Obama-Xi meeting, the presidents discussed the Taiwan issue. Obama said that Xi introduced him to a step-by-step concept of “preserving Chinese unity,” which also involves Taiwan.

The Ma-Xi meeting between Xi and President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan on Oct. 7 was historic. The leaders from China and Taiwan affirmed once more that the 1992 Consensus is the basis of stability in Taiwan; President Xi even used the term “perilous situation” to describe what would happen without the 1992 Consensus. At the Nov. 30 Obama-Xi Paris Conference, Xi demanded “concrete actions from the U.S. side to support the peaceful development of cross-strait relations.”

We can see that President Xi has some anxiety about the future of cross-strait relations. However, equally noteworthy is that at the Singapore meeting, Xi vowed to the world to solve the Taiwan issue via the 1992 Consensus. In other words, he set a bottom line for the leeway that Beijing gives Taiwan.

It is as though Xi, after earning President Ma’s approval for the 1992 Consensus, hopes to tell this to the U.S. to gain its support.

A well-known U.S. figure discussing Obama’s speech on Sept. 25 said that Taiwan also has a responsibility to protect the One-China framework, on which the Three Communiqués and Taiwan Relations Act are built. It looks like this large three-way framework is certainly taking us somewhere.