Furthermore, in contrast to James Soong's position on opening the three links (?T3q) and the KMT's insistence on maintaining the status quo, Chen argued a conditional liberalization of the ban on direct links. In this regard, national security is of vital significance. Most importantly, Chen offered the need to establish military CBMs across the Strait. The aim is to reduce the tension with the increase of military transparency and communication on both sides of the strait. He also stressed the importance of building ad hoc and issue-specific relationships with the US, Japan and South Korea to manage regional instability. The task is bound to face great challenges. Nevertheless, at least he was one of the first to outline a framework.
The extent to which the proposals revealed by Chen would work remains to be seen and more concrete policies will have to be formulated to fulfill them, ie, setting up the preliminary work for negotiation and the contents for a peace agreement. However, one thing is certain: this has demonstrated Chen's and the DPP's determination to face the real world of post-Cold War international politics.
Liu Shih-chung is the deputy director of the Democratic Progressive Party's Department of International Affairs.
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