The Cabinet proposed a major amendment to the nation's main statute on cross-strait affairs last week that seeks to change the principles underlining the statue from those of confrontation to normalization.
Twenty-six articles have been added Statute Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (
But the proposed amendment is so large in scope that it would usher in a new era of cross-strait policy if it is passed when it comes up on the legislative floor in November.
From confrontation to normalization
The significance of the amendments, according to the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwo-man Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), is turning thoughts behind the legislation from "viewing China as a rival" to "a normal country" when it comes to civil exchanges.
"While the Statute was announced 10 years ago, cross-strait relations were in a state of confrontation," Tsai said.
"However, now that both sides of the Taiwan Strait ascended to the World Trade Organization, the two sides should follow a model of cooperation and pro-active exchanges. Also, after more than 10 years, the amount of cross-strait exchanges has grown to such a degree, that the current structure of law [must be changed].
"It is about time we normalize cross-strait relations," she said.
MAC Vice Chairman Jonathan Liu (劉德勳) said under the proposal, the underlying principle of the statute has been changed from "prohibition as a rule, opening as an exception" (原則禁止，例外許可) to "opening as a rule, prohibition as an exception" (原則許可，例外禁止).
Under the draft amendment, some major bans that are currently in place would be lifted.
* The Statute Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area was passed into law in 1992.
* Since then, it has been amended 29 times, with one amendment later being deleted.
* It has also had 26 articles added to its original text.
* Mainland Affairs Council officials say that a new Cabinet-proposed amendment would be so large in scope that it would change the very nature of the law itself.
These include allowing Taiwan residents to be employed by or become members of any form of Chinese organization except for the Chinese Communist Party, the PRC government, the PRC's armed forces or any other post deemed to affect national security or national interests.
Local governments at all levels in Taiwan would also be allowed to establish sister relations with Chinese local governments as long as they obtain Cabinet approval for such partnerships.
Tsai said the revisions bring the statute closer to reality.
She said official government figures show that an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Taiwanese citizens are in China working, despite the fact the government discourages them from doing so.
Taiwan's official figures also show that Taiwanese businesspeople have invested more than US$21 billion as of June this year, though the real amount of investment is widely considered to be much higher.
Accordingly, the Cabinet's draft amendment also lifts restrictions on mainland capital investment in Taiwan with a hope to balance cross-strait trade.
The proposed amendment would also allow Taiwanese residents to travel to China without first obtaining permission from the government, and allow them to bring Chinese yuan into Taiwan.
Such changes are due to the fact that Taiwanese made more than 3 million trips to China last year, which illustrates how cross-strait civil exchanges have grown despite the fact that official cross-strait dialogue has been stalled for years.
Exceptions and risk control
However, such openings will not apply to every citizen.
The director of the MAC's Department of Legal Affairs, Jeff Yang (楊家駿), told reporters that "differentiation" is another important concept behind the legislation.
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