Editing 1992 Consensus (section)

=== 1992 ARATS-SEF meeting and Wang-Koo summits ===

In November 1992, a meeting between ARATS and SEF occurred in [[British Hong Kong]]. On 1 November 1992, SEF issued a press release stating that "each side expresses its own interpretation verbally in order to solve this sticky problem of [One China] and thereby reaffirmed the August 1st NUC resolution as SEF's interpretation of One China."<ref name=":Chen" />{{Rp|page=229}}

ARATS telephoned SEF and stated that it "fully respected and accepted" Taipei's proposal to use verbal declarations for each side's position on this issue.<ref name=":Chen" />{{Rp|page=229}} On 16 November, ARATS sent a letter to SEF formally confirming that position and stating, "both sides of the strait uphold the principle of one China, and actively seek national unification, but the political interpretation of the one China will not be referred to in the cross-strait negotiations on functional issues."<ref name=":Chen" />{{Rp|pages=229–230}}

The conclusion they reached was intended as a means of side-stepping the conflict over the [[political status of Taiwan]].{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} At the time of the meeting, Hong Kong was under [[History of Colonial Hong Kong (1800s–1930s)|British rule]] and therefore considered neutral territory by both sides.{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}} In the KMT's view, the consensus is about "one China, respective interpretations."<ref name=":Chen" />{{Rp|page=230}}

As a result of the 1992 meeting, ARATS Chairman [[Wang Daohan]] and SEF Chairman [[Koo Chen-fu]] met in [[Singapore]] on April 27, 1993, in what became known as the [[Wang-Koo summit]]. They concluded agreements on document authentication, postal transfers, and a schedule for future ARATS-SEF meetings.  Talks were delayed as tensions rose in the [[Third Taiwan Strait Crisis]], but in October 1998 a second round of Wang-Koo summit were held in [[Shanghai]]. Wang and Koo agreed to meet again in Taiwan in the autumn of 1999, but the meeting was called off by the PRC side when then President [[Lee Teng-hui]] proposed his [[Special state-to-state relations|Two-states Theory]] of "special state-to-state relations".<ref name=":Chen" />{{Rp|page=230}}

After Lee began a more independence-oriented policy in the mid-1990s, the PRC began describing "one China, respective interpretations" as a "deliberate distortion" used by independence advocates as a "disguise" for either "two Chinas" or Taiwan's formal separation.<ref name=":Chen" />{{Rp|page=230}}