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EDITORIAL: KMT-CCP talks put pressure on Ma

While receiving Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) on Sunday, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) praised communication between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), supporting a continued role for talks between the two parties in cross-strait relations.

At the same time, he deflected potential criticism that promoting a party-to-party platform to improve government-to-government relations smacks of a one-party state.

This he did by portraying talks between the KMT and the CCP as complementary — with limited powers — to negotiations between the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS).

“Today, political parties can no longer dictate government policies,” Ma said, even as the KMT chairman prepared to embark on an eight-day visit to China.

The KMT was fulfilling a “responsibility,” the president said, encouraging the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to do the same following a visit to China by Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), the most prominent DPP figure to cross the Strait in an official capacity.

Ma’s remarks were carefully weighed. They were an acknowledgment of public fears that the party-to-party platform may influence national concerns, which would be inappropriate for a non-transparent, non-governmental mechanism.

At the same time, Ma’s comments may have been intended to allay concerns within his party that he might reduce the scope of KMT-CCP communication.

Wu headed to China on Sunday amid speculation that Ma is unhappy with occasional differences — even friction — between his administration and the KMT headquarters and caucus.

During the KMT’s years in opposition, party-to-party talks were the KMT’s only channel for influencing cross-strait developments.

Having regained the presidency, however, the continuation of KMT-CCP talks outside SEF-ARATS negotiations, as well as the potential for disunity in the agendas pursued through the two channels, has fueled speculation that Ma is eyeing Wu’s place at the head of the KMT.

Indeed, Ma is faced with a balancing act that would make pursuing the KMT chairmanship a logical option.

With no sign that KMT-CCP talks will cease anytime soon despite the party’s return to power, the president must ensure that the talks do not undermine the government’s authority in cross-strait matters.

Any gap between the government’s objectives and the agenda of the KMT risks providing Chinese negotiators with an opportunity to pit these interests against one another.

In terms of the national interest, however, the KMT-CCP platform has nothing to offer. This was the case during the former DPP administration and it remains so today. Taiwan does not stand to benefit from murky contacts that undermine national sovereignty.
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