Give cross-strait peace a chance

Prior to the seventh anniversary of Chinese President Jiang Zemin's (江澤民) "Eight Points" (江八點), Vice Premier Qian Qichen (錢其琛) gave an important speech on China's Taiwan policies, showing more flexibility than in the past, such as differentiating between localization and Taiwan independence and understanding that people in Taiwan are striving for peace, stability and development. However, while the cross-strait relationship may be warming on the surface, it's hard to be too optimistic about the future, given China's insistence that the premise for renewed talks between the two sides is Taiwan's recognition of the "one China" principle and the "1992 consensus."

Basically, taking an overall look at last year's various political and non-governmental exchanges, all of Taiwan's well-intended measures, such as the opening of the "small three links" and allowing Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan, have been boycotted by China under the pretext of the "one China" principle. In contrast, there have been intensive economic and social sinicization trends in Taiwan over the past year, be it "Shanghai fever," economic and trade investments, studies, employment or emigration. China, however, maintains its overbearing attitude amending laws about the teaching materials of Taiwanese schools in China. On non-governmental levels, the peoples on both sides of the Strait are engaged in peaceful exchanges based on mutual benefit. Such positive exchanges ignoring political restrictions are vastly different from China's strategic consideration of its Taiwan policies, fully based on the sinocentric "one China" principle or a consolidation of its own power, allowing the cross-strait relationship to remain in a stalemate.

China has already declared the 21st century the century of "peace and development" and understood that "the majority among Taiwanese compatriots is striving for peace, stability, development and hoping to improve and develop the cross-strait relationship." These are also the hopes of China and its people. Apart from this, peaceful resolution is also the US' basic view on how to resolve the cross-strait issue. Recently, the chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, Richard Bush, once again reiterated the point that China and Taiwan should resolve their differences peacefully. In other words, the common denominator for Taiwan, China and the US on the cross-strait issue is the consensus for peace, and not the "1992 consensus." To break the cross-strait political stalemate, therefore, the contentious "one China" principle should be temporarily set aside and emphasis placed on the "peace" principle.

In light of the current non-governmental exchanges across the Strait, China's insistence on the "one China" principle, its intentional blocking of cross-strait dialogue, resistance to non-governmental exchanges, and its refusal to renounce the use of armed force to resolve the Taiwan issue not only violates the principle of peace, but is also incompatible with the common interests of the people on both sides of the Strait.

If China can base its Taiwan policies on a principle of peace, there will be limitless possibilities for the future of cross-strait relations. Otherwise, there will be latent threats to the peace, regardless of whether the future holds independence or unification.