After his “election” as chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said it was his personal goal to create peaceful conditions in the Taiwan Strait. Pro-China media in Hong Kong praised his comments, while Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) sent him a congratulatory telegram in which he encouraged Ma to help foster the peaceful development of cross-strait relations.
In response, Ma asked Hu to “face reality,” thus contradicting past comments about “putting disputes aside” and breathing new life into long-avoided issues such as the existence of the Republic of China (ROC) and the recognition of Taiwan as an equal political entity.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) went to a great deal of trouble in responding to Ma’s challenge. First, CCP war hawk Wang Zaixi (王在希), deputy chairman of China’s semi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, rejected Ma’s challenge in a roundabout way to avoid damaging developments in cross-strait relations. He did not reject Ma’s request to “face reality” directly, but did so by expounding on Hu’s concept of building mutual trust. Based on Ma’s goal of peace in the Taiwan Strait, Wang said mutual trust among political leaders was key to long-term cross-strait stability, adding that without mutual trust between politicians, there could be no mutual trust between the two sides’ militaries. Wang said that other problems could then be solved, including a formal end to cross-strait hostilities and the signing of framework agreements aimed at encouraging peaceful development. This was how Wang “faced reality.”
Reflecting on his conclusions after “facing reality,” he then said that Taiwan’s status must be based on the “one China” principle and the “1992 consensus.”
Wang’s comments did not stray from the views espoused in the CCP’s 17th National Congress in 2007. Even recent talk about framework agreements aimed at encouraging peaceful development were based on the political report from the 17th National Congress in which the CCP called for a formal end to hostilities in cross-strait negotiations, peace agreements, a framework for developing cross-strait peace and for creating a new environment for the peaceful development of relations based on the “one China” principle. Wang’s reiteration of these ideas was aimed at reminding Ma that peace must be based on mutual political trust and was in fact a call for Ma to “face reality.”
Wang said that Hu’s idea of establishing mutual trust was crucial to peaceful cross-strait relations and cited the first of Hu’s “new six points,” which state that it is essential to recognize that China and Taiwan both belong to China. Wang said the current lack of mutual trust, including doubts about China among Taiwanese authorities and senior officials, was the reason why Hu has placed the establishment of mutual trust above everything else. Such comments clearly show that the CCP still doubts the intentions and tendencies of the Ma administration.
The CCP has made it clear that the party has a bottom line that it will not ignore in cross-strait peace developments. Under these circumstances, it will be hard for Ma to unilaterally bring decades of peace to the Taiwan Strait, which therefore weakens the necessity of his doubling as party chairman. It could also threaten Ma’s legitimacy as president of the ROC if he were to meet the CCP’s standards for mutual political trust. Therefore, unless the CCP adjusts its stance, Ma will be in a serious dilemma.
Emerson Chang is director of the Department of International Studies at Nan Hua University.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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