Speculation that China could withdraw the missiles targeting Taiwan in the second half of next year to pave the way for political negotiations drew a mixed reaction among legislators yesterday.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方), a member of the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee, dismissed the possibility of political negotiations with China in the near future and accused former Taiwanese representative to the US Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) of fueling speculation that the KMT has secret political agreements with Beijing ahead of the presidential election in 2012.
Responding to reporters’ questions after a conference in Los Angeles on Sunday, Wu said Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), who will hand over the presidency to his successor in 2013, could do his best to pressure Taiwan into beginning political negotiations with China.
However, it was unlikely Taiwan would accept the proposal, the former envoy said, as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has on several occasions said he would not pursue political talks with Beijing during his term in office, while Taiwanese have yet to reach a consensus on the matter.
To compel Taiwan to accept talks, he said, China could remove the missiles to create a false impression of cross-strait peace so the KMT government would agree to negotiating a peace agreement.
If this happened, he said, it would likely occur in the second half of next year.
Lin said the KMT would not proceed with political talks with Beijing for the time being because Taiwanese remained widely divided on the issue. Instead it would only seek to stabilize cross-strait relations through cultural and academic exchanges and economic cooperation.
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), head of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee, said it was impossible for the government to accept any proposed political negotiation because “the time is not ripe” for the two sides to talk about political issues.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said he believed Joseph Wu’s comments were based on sound logical reasoning, but failed to take into account Beijing’s tendency to hand out wild cards.
Using China’s currency stance as an example, Huang said Beijing did not allow its currency to float on the open market despite sustained pressure from its trading partners.
“They were quite firm in their approach ... and it shows that while Hu might come under some pressure before his term is up, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he will remove the missiles,” Huang said.
While the missiles are a key point of contention, DPP Legislator Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) said a far more important issue was whether Beijing would agree to renounce the use of force against Taiwan.
Taiwanese politicians should refrain from falling for Beijing’s bait and treating the removal of the missiles as a step forward in cross-strait relations, he said, adding that “a promise to never use force against Taiwan is the only right direction.”
However, even if the missiles were relocated, Huang said it would most likely take place in 2012 rather than next year as Wu said, to coincide with Ma’s re-election bid.
“This way, everybody gets a Nobel Prize,” Huang said.
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