Kuomintang Vice Chairman Zhang Ronggong stressed commonalities between people
living on either side of the Taiwan Strait in a visit to Shanghai.

He said "people who are authentic Taiwanese should also be openly and
confidently Chinese."

Zhang was appointed to his current post on Nov. 1 by newly elected KMT Chair
Cheng Li-wun after she assumed office on the same day.

Meeting with China's Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao, Zhang said that
everyone in Taiwan "has a Chinese surname, speaks Chinese, celebrates Chinese
festivals and worships Chinese deities."

The vice chairman also cited Cheng Li-wun's message to Chinese President Xi
Jinping in which she embraced the so-called 1992 consensus and the "one-China
principle."

The ruling DPP has never acknowledged the 1992 consensus, arguing that
Beijing allows no room for the interpretation of "China" as the Republic of
China, and that acceptance of the consensus would imply agreement with
China's claim over Taiwan.

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