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Editorial: Mongolian initiative pays off

Taiwan has opened a trade representative office in Ulan Bator and Mongolia will reciprocate, although a date for its office's opening has not been announced. Even though the offices' remits will be limited to trade and economics -- as far as their names are concerned -- their existence will bring to an end an historical absurdity.

For half a century, the KMT government's maps of the world reflected its lost empire. As part of the KMT's claim to legitimacy and sovereignty over China, "Outer Mongolia" continued to be included as part of the ROC's mainland territory -- even though the ROC had actually recognized Mongolia's independence in 1946.

Earlier this year, the Mainland Affairs Council revised the bylaws of the Statute Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) to exclude "Outer Mongolia" from the statue's scope. Critics claimed such a move was unconstitutional -- even though the Constitution does not clearly define "existing national boundaries -- because the Cabinet was altering state territory without approval from the National Assembly. However, Mongolia gained independence through a public referendum before the Constitution was enacted and its independence has been recognized by the entire world.

Nevertheless, the legal status of "Outer Mongolia" remains unresolved in Taiwan and therefore the legal status of a representative office in Taipei could be open to debate. The government needs to set up a special task force or convene discussions between the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mainland Affairs Council on the issue. If necessary, the Legislative Yuan should also consider convening the National Assembly to discuss the constitutionality of territorial change and reach a legal solution to the Mongolia issue.

The establishment of the Mongolian office will have an impact on the functions and authority of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, one of the "eight ministries and two commissions" that the Constitution stipulates must be included in the Cabinet. To prevent conflicts of authority between the commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Cabinet should dissolve the commission. The commission's Mongolian affairs section should be included in the foreign ministry's remit, while Tibetan affairs should be included in the Mainland Affairs Commission's portfolio or in a new ethnic affairs commission, which should also combine the Council of Indigenous Peoples and the Council for Hakka Affairs.

This latest breakthrough in Taiwan-Mongolian relations can open a door through which Mongolia can learn from Taiwan's experience in economic development and "ocean thinking." For Taiwan, relations with Mongolia and Russia can provide new routes into Eurasia.

The government has been quietly pushing a "go north" policy, the results of which include the exchange of representative offices with Mongolia, the importation of Mongolian workers and the opening of air links with Russia. This "go north" policy has yielded more substantial results than the "go south" policy, which has always been more of a slogan than a real strategy. The methodology and results of the "go north" policy are good examples of the Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) government's aggressive diplomacy.
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