President Ma Ying-jeou challenged Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen Tuesday to accept the '1992 consensus' between Taiwan and China. 'If the DPP were to become the ruling party one day, I wonder if Tsai would have her DPP administration continue the Kuomintang's existing policy (toward China),' Ma said at a year-end gathering with reporters. The '1992 consensus' refers to a tacit agreement reached between Taiwan and China in 1992 that 'there is only one China, but Taipei and Beijing are free to interpret 'one China' as they see fit.' The term '1992 consensus' was coined in 2000 by then Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Su Chi to summarize the tacit agreement, which has been serving as the basis for Taiwan-China negotiations since 2008 when President Ma took office. The DPP-led opposition camp has refused to accept the 1992 consensus on the grounds that it could result in China's annexation of Taiwan. Ma said that during a meeting with former President Chen Shui-bian of the DPP in April 2006, he had suggested that the government accept the consensus in order to resume the suspended cross-strait talks. 'After a two-hour discussion, Chen promised to recognize the consensus if China did so first,' Ma said Ma said that in a phone call to former U.S. President George W. Bush on March 26, 2008, Chinese President Hu Jintao indicated a willingness to reopen cross- strait talks on the basis of the '1992 consensus.' Furthermore, Li Yafei, Vice President of the Beijing-based Associations for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) , has said that the 1992 consensus refers to 'both sides each orally interpreting their own concept of 'one China' principle, ' Ma noted. ARATS and its Taiwan counterpart, the Straits Exchange Foundation, are the semi-official organizations authorized to handle cross-strait exchanges. 'It would be impractical for the DPP to continue to deny the existence of the consensus, ' Ma said. 