The third point upholds the existence of the Republic of China (ROC) and its democracy to deny Beijing's "one China" principle.
In terms of the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth points, they concretely set out Chen's ideas for maintaining cross-strait peace and stability. These ideas include a large force reduction of 100,000 troops by the end of 2008, a ban on the use of weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, the establishment of military buffer zones and setting up a "Taiwan Strait consultation mechanism" for military security.
To be blunt, the two sides are unlikely to establish a cross-strait mechanism for military security before a political compromise is made. Nevertheless, Taiwan's goodwill and China's threat have exactly highlighted the difference between the "sunshine policy" and "dark forces."
By taking a friendly tone, Taipei is striving for US support, hoping that Bush will not make any concessions at the APEC summit.
Looking realistically at all 10 points, what really can be done is only the fourth point, which suggests that "both sides can use the Taiwan-Hong Kong commercial air route negotiations as a model to start consultation regarding cargo and passenger charted flights," because China's Taiwan Affairs Office already agreed to accept this during its press conference on Oct. 27.
Finally, Chen's 10 points were also made to pave a road for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to win the Dec. 11 legislative elections. In fact, he recently defined the DPP's legislative campaign theme as creating a country that is "happy and safe," in order to attract middle-of-the-road voters. This will further expand his power base and help the green camp win a majority in the legislature.
The real purpose of Chen's 10 points was to package the ruling party as a party of peace and development, while portraying the blue camp as a symbol of conflict and destruction. Will his campaign strategy work? Let's wait and see.
Tung Chen-yuan is an associate research fellow at the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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