Tokyo, Aug. 1 (CNA) Kuomintang (KMT) presidential nominee Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) met with Kōichi Hagiuda, chair of the Policy Research Council of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), on Tuesday during the second day of his “friendship tour” in the neighboring country.
In a meeting with Hagiuda at LDP headquarters, Hou said that as a Taiwanese presidential candidate in Japan, he wanted to convey the importance of maintaining stability in the Taiwan Strait, in order to make both countries safer.
Hou said Taiwan and Japan are “inseparably” linked by their geography, history and culture, and thanked Hagiuda, in particular, for supporting Taiwan’s inclusion in international organizations.
Hagiuda, meanwhile, said Japan and Taiwan’s close relations are rooted in their shared values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law.
He noted that Japan and Taiwan marked 50 years of close unofficial ties last year, and expressed hope that the sides would continue to build deeper relations in the areas of economics and culture.
Separately on Tuesday, Hou was interviewed by Japanese media outlets and asked multiple questions regarding the tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Hou expressed that Taiwan has a responsibility to do “everything it can” to maintain cross-strait stability.
He said he would work, as president, to strengthen Taiwan’s democratic system and its national defense capabilities, and would hold “substantive dialogue and exchanges to lower the risk of cross-strait conflict.”
Echoing his campaign platform, Hou said he was opposed to both Taiwan independence and “one country, two systems,” and supported a version of the “1992 consensus” that conforms with the Republic of China Constitution.
The “1992 consensus” refers to an understanding reached in a 1992 meeting between Taiwan’s then-ruling KMT and Beijing that both sides recognize there is only “one China.”
The KMT maintains the consensus allows each side to define what it means by “China,” although Beijing has never formally endorsed this stance.
