Cross-strait issue should be about economics: Siew

Former premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) said yesterday that he expects direct links to be a hot issue in the run-up to the 2004 presidential election but he wishes that discussions on cross-strait relations would focus on economics, not politics.

Siew, who is head of the Chung Hua Institution for Economic Research, made the remarks in his opening speech to a Kaohsiung seminar on the prospects for economic and political developments across the Taiwan Strait in the wake of the Chinese Communist Party's 16th National Congress.

The seminar was sponsored by National Sun Yat-sen University, the Taiwan Think Tank and the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission.

In his speech, Siew said cross-strait relations should be developed by focusing on economic issues.

But given that the 2004 election campaign is expected to start at the beginning of the year, he said "direct transport links will be a hot topic."

"The interference of political power on the matter means cross-strait relations will deviate from an economic-centered direction, which would not benefit Taiwan's economic development," Siew said.

He said that Taiwan has spent much of its resources on debates over political ideology in the past decade, while China has devoted itself to economic affairs.

"It has been predicted that China will double its economy by 2020 to become the second-biggest economic power in the world," he said.

Siew said the new generation of Chinese leadership will emphasize the professionalism of the Beijing government and that future Chinese leaders will be relatively young to strengthen that nation's economic and political development.

It is worrisome, Siew said, that Taiwan has emphasized ideology rather than economics and that it is not making any progress on direct transportation links.

However, the chairman of the pro-DPP Taiwan Think Tank, Chen Po-chih (陳博志), said wishful thinking would not solve problems with Beijing on transportation links.

"The matter should be handled under the principles of objectivity, reason, equality and mutual beneficial circumstances," Chen said.

Research, Development and Evaluation Commission Chairman Lin Chia-cheng (林嘉誠) sided with Chen by citing a recent commission poll that found that 62 percent of respondents wanted the government to take the lead in cross-strait negotiations to ensure national security, even though 48 percent backed the idea of direct transport links.

The government has repeatedly said direct transport links are a question of how to do it, not whether to do it.

The economic affairs director of the Mainland Affairs Council, Fu Don-cheng (傅棟成), said that an evaluation on cross-strait transportation was completed last month.

But the council said it would wait until "an appropriate time" to announce the results.