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No more 'one China' fantasies now

Saturday's elections were a watershed for Taiwan's future relationship with China, as the DPP won the largest number of seats of any party in the next session of the Legislative Yuan.

The Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) administration has been suffering from political boycotts by the opposition-led majority since it took office. The result was a political stalemate between the ruling and the opposition parties as well as a deadlock between Taipei and Beijing.

Beijing's use of a "divide and conquer" strategy -- dealing only with members of the opposition and bypassing the Chen administration -- has been a major stumbling block to the improvement of cross-strait relations.

In his first post-election appearance, Chen called for the Chinese leadership to recognize the fact that the DPP will be the largest party in the Legislative Yuan and urged Beijing not to despise him or his government any longer. Chen also reiterated his willingness to engage in the normalization of bilateral relations with China. Most importantly, he argued that China should accept the choices made by the people of Taiwan.

As the election results show, pro-unification forces were largely rejected by voters. The people of Taiwan have sent a clear message to Beijing that they are not interested in any cliches about "one country, two systems."

With the new mandate Chen has received, he has greater legitimacy to use his "new middle way" approach in dealing with China. With the decline of the pro-unification forces in the post-election political landscape, Bei-jing will have no choice but to deal directly with Chen's adminis-tration. The Chinese leadership no longer has any excuse to deal only with the opposition.

The first reaction from China to the elections was disappointing. Zhang Mingqing (張銘清), spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council, insisted that the election results showed that the majority of public opinion was in favor of the "one country, two systems" formula. Zhang also called on Taiwan's leaders to accept the "one China" principle as the precondition for cross-strait dialogue.

Judging by how naive Beijing is toward Taiwan's democratic elections, the question now is, does the Chinese leadership have the wisdom to accept the choice made by the people of Taiwan?

Chen's enhanced ability to consolidate legislative support will also pave the way for generating a domestic consensus on his China policy. Most pre-election criticism of Chen's cross-strait policy by the opposition tended to focus only on the "one China" issue. This single-minded approach constitutes one of the key factors for the stalemate in cross-strait relations. China still insists on Taiwan's acceptance of the "one China" principle as the precondition for the resumption of bilateral talks. That insistence downgrades Taiwan to a local government in China, which is unacceptable to the majority of people in Taiwan. The opposition also parroted China in pushing Chen to accept the idea of "one China, with each side having its own interpretation" and to keep unification as the final goal.

Despite the pressure from home and abroad, Chen has insisted that the people of Taiwan cannot accept that "one China" means the PRC. Even less can they accept that Taiwan is a part of the PRC. People should not doubt Chen's determination to stand firm on this issue and uphold Taiwan's sovereignty, dignity and security. Nor should they worry that Chen might be too conciliatory toward Beijing.

It is, in fact, Beijing's attitude toward Chen's gestures that deserves special attention. So far China has not responded positively to Chen's conciliatory approach. What is the strategic thinking behind such a negative attitude? Obviously Beijing hopes to take advantage of Taiwan's internal debate on the administration's China policy. The more Chen's government fails to generate domestic support for its cross-strait policy, the more likely it is that Beijing will try to pressure Chen to make concessions. This is another major factor for the cross-strait stalemate.

The results of Saturday's election were in part a vote of confidence in Chen's performance. Winning the battle for public opinion strengthens the government's mandate to initiate domestic reforms while at the same time continuing its pragmatic approach toward Beijing.

In this regard, there is no justifiable basis for both the KMT and the People First Party to continue to boycott the administration's cross-strait policy. In the face of China's efforts at intimidation, a concerted effort must be made by all of Taiwan's parties to find common ground.

The political integration of both sides of the Taiwan Strait, including economic and cultural aspects, must be based on three foundations: respect for the free will of Taiwan's 23 million people, that the proceedings are conducted in a peaceful and non-military manner and that the integration must contribute to the stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region.

It's time for all parties in Taiwan to unite together and face the same enemy.

Liu Kuan-teh is a Taipei-based political commentator.
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