Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen's recent statements that the island would not bow to pressure from the mainland have been rejected by government officials and academic experts as clear distortions.

"The mainland never pressures the island," said Ni Yongjie, deputy director of the Shanghai Institute of Taiwan Studies. "The mainland's only hope is to retain peaceful development on the basis of the 1992 Consensus."

The 1992 Consensus, in which representatives from the mainland and the island agreed that both are part of one China, is the cornerstone of upholding the peaceful development of both sides across the Straits, said An Fengshan, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.