A Mainland Affairs Council official said yesterday that Taiwan was more willing to work together with Macau than against it -- but that if push came to shove, relations could take a turn for the worse.
The comments came just days after Macau's return to China, after which officials have said Taiwan is already being forced to adapt to the new relationship and the corresponding shifts in ties in the process.
It has already been suggested -- by Edmund Ho, the new Macau Special Administrative Region Chief Executive -- that one possible shift will be a requirement that Taiwan residents use a special travel permit (
If Macau does require Taiwan residents to carry travel permits, this would be a major step backwards, said Tsai Jy-jon (
"I hope that they will reconsider, but if they use this backward method it won't be like we don't have any way of responding ourselves," Tsai said.
Tsai, speaking at a post-handover briefing yesterday, said that while no decisions have been made yet, the possibility of setting limitations on Macau residents who work in Taiwan would be one obvious possibility.
"Everyone knows that Macau residents come here to work and how helpful this is to their economy," Tsai said.
But that, he said, would be a worst case scenario.
"We would rather not travel down that road," Tsai said. "We would rather relations get better and better, not worse and worse."
The other shift, however, was more immediate, in the form of ambiguity over the new name for Taiwan's de facto representative body in the former Portuguese enclave -- which has been, until recently, known as the Taipei Tourism and Trade Office in Macau.
Just before Macau's handover, officials working at the office took its official signs down from outside the building's first floor and moved them inside to two separate offices on different floors of a downtown Macau commercial building.
Afterwards, William Li (
Tsai said yesterday, however, that the sign had been moved because the representative office had been pressured to do so indirectly by the incoming SAR administration.
The way the request was made was "very unfriendly and threatening," Tsai said.
Tsai said that those who had put pressure on the office were not "government officials, but those individuals in Macau who had close links with the government."
Tsai said MAC Chairman Su Chi (蘇起), had been upset over the removal of the sign and called on Li to return to Taiwan and report on the matter -- which he did promptly on Monday. Li was not, however, available for comment yesterday.
Tsai said that when Li decided to take the sign down he was very hurried, but afterwards he expressed regret over the decision.
Tsai also dismissed the opinion that moving the sign in doors was a serious -- albeit symbolic -- setback.
"Our sign is still there -- it has been moved, but it hasn't been taken away," Tsai said. "It's very much like moving a sofa around."
Trade office officials have already voiced their complaints to officials in the Special Administrative Region's government, Tsai said, but no response has been given yet.
Li had previously said the office would be renamed by Jan. 15, but that there is no clear sign yet when that will occur, Tsai said.
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