China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Minister Zhang Zhijun’s (張志軍) four-day visit to Taiwan marks an important milestone in cross-strait relations. For the first time in 65 years, the Chinese official in charge of Taiwan affairs has set foot in the nation.
Soon after Zhang’s arrival at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on June 25, he held an official meeting with his Taiwanese counterpart, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦), to discuss unfinished business from their first meetings in Nanjing and Shanghai when Wang made his first trip to China in February.
As well as pro forma government-to-government dialogue, Zhang’s visit seeks to “increase mutual political trust” between Beijing and Taipei, to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations. Prior to his trip, he said that his main objective was to learn about the real Taiwan, to communicate with Taiwanese from all walks of life, especially at the grassroots level from central and southern Taiwan, and young people.
This is an ambitious and admirable endeavor, given his brief stay. If he truly seeks to interact with ordinary citizens and learn about issues that are of concern to Beijing, he must not allow himself to be wined, dined and surrounded by supplicants among the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politicos and business tycoons, who want favors from Zhang.
Below are seven candid and direct pieces of advice that he might find helpful.
One, keep your ears open and do not be persuaded by one side, as Taiwan is a pluralistic and diverse nation; there are even contending factions and different perspectives on what the future of Taiwan should look like within both the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Two, take a deep look at who actually benefits from cross-strait engagement. Beijing claims that Taiwan has gained from China’s concessions through the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) and 19 other agreements, including the pending cross-strait service trade agreement, which aim to liberalize trade and investment.
Likewise, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has maintained that its pro-China stance helps boost the nation’s economy. In reality, the economy has fared poorly overall.
Big businesses appreciate China’s so-called concessions as they have benefited from the opening up of cross-strait economic engagement, but ordinary people have suffered from the flight of capital and the relocation of production facilities to China, resulting in high unemployment, particularly among the young.
In short, many in Taiwan believe, rightly or wrongly, Beijing only befriends the rich and the powerful and recruits and co-opts compradors and agents to promote its own agenda.
Three, the student-led Sunflower movement and the peaceful occupation of the Legislative Yuan was directed at the dysfunctional Taiwanese system of representative democracy and Ma’s authoritarian regime.
Without consulting the affected parties, Ma last year ordered the Straits Exchange Foundation to initial the service trade pact, and in March instructed KMT lawmakers to railroad the agreement through the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee, disregarding parliamentary rules and procedures.
The students of the Sunflower movement and representatives of civic groups were opposed to Ma’s dictatorial behavior and the service trade pact, which in their view would badly harm local small and medium-sized businesses, and enable Communist agents to worm their way into Taiwan to engage in sabotage, subversion and united-front operations with the aim of facilitating China’s annexation of Taiwan.
Four, do not try to undermine Taiwan’s foreign affairs and isolate Taiwan in the international community. The reasons for this are first, Taiwanese strongly resent Beijing’s obstruction of its participation in the WHO and the International Civil Aviation Organization and second, Taiwan is a legitimate claimant to the disputed South China Sea territories, but it has has been excluded by Beijing from participation in international conferences to negotiate and establish a code of conduct. However, this has not prevented Beijing from calling on Taipei to take a common stand with it to defend Chinese sovereignty.
Five, if Beijing is sincere about the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, it should not object to Indonesia and India planning free-trade agreements with Taiwan. Taiwanese would appreciate China’s goodwill, if Beijing did not stand in Taipei’s way of joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, two regional economic organizations which are vital to Taiwan’s economic recovery.
Six, Taiwan is a democracy and either the DPP or KMT could be elected, hence the TAO also seeks to engage the DPP. Regrettably, Beijing’s party and state cadres interfered crudely in Taiwan’s presidential elections in 2012 and helped Ma to be re-elected.
The nation’s voters have denounced China’s blatant interference in Taiwan’s democratic process. China should refrain from such illegitimate actions in future elections. Taiwan will hold its seven-in-one elections in November; please be strictly neutral and do not get involved in the campaigns of any particular candidates. There is speculation in the media that Beijing is likely to mobilize its human and media resources in Taiwan to support the election campaign of KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文). The TAO can prove these rumors groundless.
Seven, Taiwanese are peace-loving and hope to develop peaceful, friendly and cooperative relations with China, but they are puzzled and apprehensive about increased Chinese militarization, including aiming more than 1,300 missiles at Taiwan. It is imperative that future cross-strait negotiations should focus on how to prevent war, reduce tensions and forge genuine peace across the Taiwan Strait.
Most important of all, Chinese leaders should be open and willing to talk to the representatives of Taiwanese civic groups and political parties who command public trust and legitimacy, not those who seek private gains or personal advancement. Beijing has made the correct and wise decision to veto a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Ma. The challenge for Zhang is to expand his mindset, explore a diverse range of opinions, and engage with effective interlocutors in Taiwan.
Parris Chang is a professor emeritus of political science at Penn State University and chief executive of the Taiwan Institute for Political, Economic and Strategic Studies.
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