Five days into the new millennium, relations across the Taiwan Strait are already showing signs of a thaw -- or so it seems. Taiwan has taken the initiative in opening the "small three links" -- direct postal, transportation and trade links between the coast of China and Taiwan's offshore islands of Kinmen and Matsu -- despite Beijing's lack of enthusiasm. Some hope seems to be dawning for cross-strait relations, which have been in the deep freeze since former president Lee Teng-hui (
In fact, the small three links are not the only goodwill gesture from Taiwan. In his New Year's Eve speech, President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen's statement immediately won applause from around the world -- including the other side of the Taiwan Strait.
According to the Presidential Office, Chen notified the leaders of the three opposition parties about the content of his speech and won their support two days before presenting it. In light of this, the idea of a "new framework for political integration" is grounded on the kind of consensus between the ruling and opposition parties that had previously seemed so elusive.
It was in the middle of this goodwill atmosphere that KMT chairman Lien Chan (
Lien's advocacy of a confederation -- which may become the KMT's official policy -- has won widespread approval. This is in stark contrast to the severe criticism he received for the trial balloons he sent out during the election campaign to test the same idea, and an indication of the changeable nature of cross-strait relations.
Apart from Lien's confederation concept, KMT vice chair Vincent Siew (
The recent policy statements made by the ruling and opposition parties show a narrowing gap between their cross-strait policies as they gradually move toward a common path. Despite the different terminology -- be it "integration" or "unification" or "fusion" or even the New Party's earlier "shared roof" dictum, the ruling and opposition parties seem to have found something vaguely acceptable in the confederation concept.
We should point out however that the evolution of cross party consensus does not mean that confederation will become a topic of negotiation across the Taiwan Strait. One other group -- the most important of all -- has yet to have its voice, namely the 23 million people on Taiwan. Any basis for serious negotiation with China must first receive their support. Getting this might be even more difficult than thrashing out a cross-party consensus. It is not that Taiwanese hate China so much as they loath the communist system. Confederation might be the only unification system that, being so loose, can allay their fears in this direction; that doesn't mean that it will. At the very least, now China has to show some goodwill. Taiwan can't be raped, it has to be wooed. Beijing's arrogant bullying and shrill demands hardly make it an ideal suitor.
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