Peaceful cross-strait relations: an appeal to the US and China

5) The US and its democratic allies should strive to reach consensus on the Taiwan Strait issue and act upon it.

In short, pending a final solution, legitimizing the status quo should be the priority. The international community can help enact this by seriously considering implementation of the measures suggested above.

In the last six decades, Taiwan and its people have gone from being a colony of imperial Japan, to enduring 40 years of martial law, to orchestrating the first-ever democratic election of a leader in 5,000 years of Chinese history. Taiwan is the only traditionally Chinese society to transform itself into a thriving market democracy. It has become a beacon for all Chinese in the PRC and other peoples aspiring for a democratic way of life. As such, the preservation of the status quo across the Taiwan Strait is in the best interests of the people of China, Taiwan and the free world.

Chen Pi-chao (陳必照) is an adjunct professor at National Chi Nan University; Kang Ning-hsiang (康寧祥) is a member of the Control Yuan; Michael Hsiao Hsin-Huang (蕭新煌) is a professor of sociology at National Taiwan University; Lin Cheng-yi (林正義) is a research fellow at the Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica; Wu Hsin-hsing (吳新興) is a professor and director of the Graduate Institute of Political Economy at National Cheng Kung University; Joseph Wu Jaushieh (吳釗燮) is a research fellow at National Chenghi University's Institute of International Relations.