MAC says cross-strait ties stable despite incidents

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), yesterday said cross-strait relations remain stable, despite a sudden, steep increase in rejections of Taiwanese notarized documents by Chinese authorities -- and Tai-wan's revelation Wednesday that some 70 Taiwanese businessmen have been detained in China in recent years for "unclear reasons."

MAC Vice Chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) told a weekly routine news conference that "cross-strait relations are relatively stable."

But he stressed that, as exchanges between two sides increase, "it is hard to avoid certain incidents."

Since Dec. 5 until Thursday this week, 2,025 notarized documents had been rejected by authorities throughout China.

Chen reiterated a statement by MAC Chairwoman Tsai Ying-wen (蔡英文) Monday that the government has devised measures for responding to the public and "will reveal the complete plan to the public after comprehensive deliberation."

He said, however, that "the situation is getting worse," and added that notarized documents have been rejected by 16 provinces and cities, including Shanghai, Hunan, Guangdong and Guangxi.

Chen called on the Chinese authorities to respect an agreement reached during the 1993 Koo-Wang Talks (辜汪會談), in which the two sides agreed to approve each other's notarized documents.

Before last December, no notarized documents issued in Taiwan and bearing the Taiwan seal had been rejected.

"The important thing is to establish an effective mechanism for managing exchange activities ac-ross the Strait," Chen said.

Chen also called on Chinese authorities to protect Taiwanese businesspeople's rights when they invest in China. His call follows an acknowledgement by Taiwan's quasi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Sectary-General Shi Hwei-yow (許惠祐) -- for the first time Wednesday -- that there have been over 70 cases in recent years of Taiwanese businessmen being detained by Chinese police for "unclear reasons" in Dongguan (東莞), in China's southern province of Guangdong, where a lot Taiwanese businessmen are active.

"We have tried to understand the situation by way of Taiwanese businessmen's associations in China," said Chen, and "the MAC has asked the SEF to investigate the matter."

The SEF, however, did not provide further details of such cases, but Shi said that he would elaborate on several of the worst cases for the benefit of reporters next week.

Chen also called on Chinese leaders to uphold human rights and to normalize cross-strait business activities. He called on the Chinese to adopt an attitude of active cooperation in order to facilitate exchanges between the two sides.