They have of course also noted that, as Chen Yunlin said, "if the cross-strait shipping market continues developing in this manner, it will become monopolized by foreign capital." Indeed, due to China's boycott, Pusan has overtaken Kaohsiung to become the world's third largest container port, and Evergreen Marine Corporation (長榮海運) must register their ships in the UK and Italy. China will probably not be able to avoid similar harm.
If the opposition parties are to make good in the area of cross-strait relations, the biggest job will be to revise the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例). Re-member that because China sees the issue from a strategic vantage point, Taiwan -- goodwill aside -- needs a similar or even better vantage point. If not, Taiwan will find itself moving closer to the hawks in Beijing and falling out of touch with the pragmatists.
As a result, even if they want to help promote the establishment of the direct links, they will actually make matters worse. It goes without saying that harming the in-terests of Taiwan will not be beneficial to improving cross-strait relations.
Lin Cho-shui is a DPP legislator.
Translated by Scudder Smith and Perry Svensson
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