The functions of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) are too important for the council to be downgraded or to be stripped of its powers, regardless of how it is re-organized, an academic said yesterday.
Chang Wu-yue (張五岳), a professor at Tamkang University's Institute of Mainland China Studies, said the council's functions should only be bolstered, and not marginalized, given the agency's importance in terms of formulating and overseeing Taiwan's China policies.
On reports that President Chen Shui-bian's (
Noting that the council has been a nerve center responsible for integrating policies from all Cabinet-level divisions on matters regarding national defense, diplomacy, business, trade, relations between people across the Taiwan Strait, and the rights of people from both sides of the Strait, Chang said he hopes that the future Executive Yuan Mainland Affairs Office will be able to perform its duties as adequately and efficiently as MAC does.
Arguing that all divided countries have exclusive government organizations with high status in charge of affairs or reunification between the two sides, such as South Korea's Ministry of National Unification, Chang said that he does not quite understand the purpose or mentality behind the government's plans to marginalize the MAC into a "mainland affairs office."
On reports that the administration is planning to downsize the Cabinet into 13 ministries and four councils, Chang said that he does not see the sense of retaining the less important Council of Hakka Affairs and Council of Aboriginal Affairs while downsizing the much more important mainland affairs agency.
A Shanghai-based businessman surnamed Liu, when approached for comment, expressed a positive attitude toward the "Mainland Affairs Office" plan, saying that in today's fast-changing world, companies can survive only by constantly changing their operations and organization, and that governments must do the same.
Meanwhile, a Peking University doctoral candidate from Taiwan speculated yesterday that Chinese authorities are not likely overreact to the reports of the planned changes to the council as long as the future "office" is not turned into an arm of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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