US urged to 'properly tackle Taiwan question'

Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday urged the United States to "properly tackle the Taiwan question" during a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

It is hoped that the US will uphold its one-China policy and firmly stay committed to key joint statements released by the two countries, Wang was quoted as saying in a release issued by the Foreign Ministry.

Kerry said the US has not and will not change its position regarding Taiwan and it does not support "Taiwan independence".

The two sides also agreed to "continue communication and properly tackle maritime issues", the release said.

During the talk, Wang referred to a range of items between the two countries, including the upcoming annual China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue and the preparation for the G20 leaders' summit in Eastern China's Hangzhou in September.

Both sides are expected to "stay focused on cooperation, properly manage divergences and maintain the momentum of the healthy and stable development of China-US ties", Wang said.

The talk between Wang and Kerry came just four days before the inauguration of Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party, as the island's new leader.

While Tsai has talked about preserving the status quo in cross-Straits relations, she has not yet convinced people that DPP, which has long refused to endorse the 1992 Consensus that Taiwan and the mainland are both parts of one China, will give up pursuing the island's full independence from the mainland.

Zhu Weidong, deputy head of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency as saying that negating the consensus would disrupt the status quo of peace and stability promised by the incoming leader.

"Adherence to the consensus is not only a matter of principle, but also a gesture of good will from the mainland, because the principle has been consistent. The mainland has asked no more from the DPP than it did from the Kuomintang (KMT) since 2008," Zhu said.

Chen Shui-bian, the former Taiwan leader from the DPP, has pursued the island's formal "independence", which has complicated cross-Straits relations. Relations have improved dramatically after Ma Ying-jeou, the leader of Kuomintang, assumed leadership of the island in 2008.

Bilateral trade has reached $170 billion each year. And the Chinese mainland has become Taiwan's largest destination of investment and exports.

Taiwan also has long been a thorny issue between China and the US, with the US continuing to sell arms to the island and drawing strong protest from Beijing.