Taiwan opened its doors to China to let in direct charter flights, in exchange for Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) vice chairman and deputy director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Sun Yafu (
Traveling as private representatives of ARATS chairman Wang Daohan (
Although this tone of voice clearly is yet another expression of the hostile attitude that there should be no contact with Taiwan, the two did in fact meet with high-level officials from the council for secret talks. After returning to Shanghai, Sun said that ARATS and the council in the future "will continue their good exchanges, contacts, negotiations and talks."
When Wang Zaixi gave a video interview to People's Daily Online, he said that "the year of the monkey leaves a mood of audacity behind, and the year of the rooster calls for a new dawn," which would seem to imply an optimistic view of the future for cross-strait relations.
The outcome is clearly different from their approach prior to the event. I don't think that this is because the council capitulated to ARATS during the "secret talks." Rather, China's typical trick of signalling a left turn before turning right created misunderstandings and unexpected results.
At the same time, this is a negotiating trick: First you pressure the opponent by taking an unreasonable approach, and then almost walking away before making a small concession as a show of "good will." That's intended to make the opponent feel grateful, so that the whole deal can be concluded in a win-win manner.
As expected, this statement has been played up as meaning that the year of the rooster will bring a new dawn and that spring is here. The stock market rose as well.
In fact, if we look back at the relationship between ARATS and the council, China took the initiative in ending contact with the council, because the council insisted on the principle of not selling out Taiwan's interests, and this irritated China. The one who tied the bell around the tiger's neck should also be the one who undoes it. But Taiwan had to remove the council's vice chairman Hsu Hui-yu (
China has, of course, paid a price for putting an end to contacts in the form of a growing Taiwanese consciousness and the further distancing of Taiwan from China. This means that although contacts have resumed, we will still have to wait and see what that will bring.
The key to cross-strait relations still lies with China.
First, China's military threat has not decreased, while there is no sign for the suspension of the "anti-secession law."
Second, in terms of the diplomatic aspect, China has continued to lure away Taiwan's diplomatic allies. Recently, Taiwan lost another ally as Grenada officially established diplomatic ties with Beijing. Moreover, after Chinese President Hu Jintao (
China always attempts to divide the pan-blue and pan-green camps through the unification-independence issue. But it is also trying to create divisions within the pan-green camp itself. For example, during a recent meeting held to mark the 10th anniversary of former president Jiang Zemin's (
Before China abandons the possibility of attacking Taiwan by force and ceases its oppression of Taiwan's diplomatic space, we should not easily believe its goodwill.
In particular, Taiwan should prepare an "anti-annexation law." If China's National People's Congress passes the anti-secession law, Taiwan should immediately pass the anti-annexation law in response. The international community will have a sympathetic attitude towards us. We can even launch a referendum on this if necessary. Once we lose this chance, it will be too late.
Paul Lin is a political commentator based in New York.
Translated by Eddy Chang and Perry Svensson
On May 7, 1971, Henry Kissinger planned his first, ultra-secret mission to China and pondered whether it would be better to meet his Chinese interlocutors “in Pakistan where the Pakistanis would tape the meeting — or in China where the Chinese would do the taping.” After a flicker of thought, he decided to have the Chinese do all the tape recording, translating and transcribing. Fortuitously, historians have several thousand pages of verbatim texts of Dr. Kissinger’s negotiations with his Chinese counterparts. Paradoxically, behind the scenes, Chinese stenographers prepared verbatim English language typescripts faster than they could translate and type them
More than 30 years ago when I immigrated to the US, applied for citizenship and took the 100-question civics test, the one part of the naturalization process that left the deepest impression on me was one question on the N-400 form, which asked: “Have you ever been a member of, involved in or in any way associated with any communist or totalitarian party anywhere in the world?” Answering “yes” could lead to the rejection of your application. Some people might try their luck and lie, but if exposed, the consequences could be much worse — a person could be fined,
On May 13, the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment to Article 6 of the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) that would extend the life of nuclear reactors from 40 to 60 years, thereby providing a legal basis for the extension or reactivation of nuclear power plants. On May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators used their numerical advantage to pass the TPP caucus’ proposal for a public referendum that would determine whether the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant should resume operations, provided it is deemed safe by the authorities. The Central Election Commission (CEC) has
When China passed its “Anti-Secession” Law in 2005, much of the democratic world saw it as yet another sign of Beijing’s authoritarianism, its contempt for international law and its aggressive posture toward Taiwan. Rightly so — on the surface. However, this move, often dismissed as a uniquely Chinese form of legal intimidation, echoes a legal and historical precedent rooted not in authoritarian tradition, but in US constitutional history. The Chinese “Anti-Secession” Law, a domestic statute threatening the use of force should Taiwan formally declare independence, is widely interpreted as an emblem of the Chinese Communist Party’s disregard for international norms. Critics
RSS