Recent comments made by the nation’s top cross-strait policymaker has fueled Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) suspicions about whether President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration intends to move cross-strait talks in a political direction after its push for a cross-strait trade pact.
“The DPP will keep a close eye on the government,” DPP spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said yesterday.
“Given that consensus has not yet been reached [on cross-strait political issues] in Taiwan, a great opposition from the Taiwanese public would be ignited if the Ma government were to act willfully [and engage in cross-strait political negotiations],” Lin said.
On Friday, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said she would welcome a visit by the head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, while also expressing a wish to visit China sometime in the future.
“I would welcome [Taiwan Affairs Office] Director Wang Yi (王毅) coming to Taiwan,” Lai said in Hong Kong, adding that she also felt she would have the opportunity to travel to China because of increased institutionalized contact between Taiwan and China.
“Under the systematic negotiating framework” between the two intermediary bodies from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, a visit by the “MAC chairperson to the mainland, or that of the Taiwan Affairs Office director to Taiwan can be expected,” she said.
Lai arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday for a three-day visit accompanied by James Chu (朱曦), the director of the MAC’s Department of Hong Kong and Macao Affairs.
Her visit was described by a senior MAC official as an “ice-breaking landing in Hong Kong.” Lai said she visited to review the operations of the MAC’s Hong Kong office, referring to the Chung Hwa Travel Service.
Speaking to MAC staff members stationed in Hong Kong, Lai said that positive cross-strait exchanges had improved Taiwan-Hong Kong ties, and that her visit was evidence of that.
Regarding Taiwan’s Hong Kong policy, Lai said many problems remained to be resolved in terms of cooperation and exchanges.
Matters concerning the welfare of people in Taiwan and Hong Kong could still only be handled by “official authorities,” but she hoped breakthroughs could be made, she said.
“We should anticipate the future development of Taiwan-Hong Kong relations in an active and positive manner. Like visa waivers, if people expect that to happen, both governments should work in that direction,” Lai said.
Senior MAC officials confirmed that Lai made the visit in her official capacity as MAC chief. Lai was the first minister-level Taiwanese official to visit Hong Kong, they said.
Lai returned to Taipei yesterday.
Lin yesterday said there was no need for the MAC to call Lai’s Hong Kong visit “a breakthrough.”
“After all, the real reason Lai was able to make Hong Kong trip was because the Ma administration belittled itself first, which China finds satisfying,” Lin said.
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