Signing a peace agreement with China will be the next step toward advancing and consolidating cross-strait relations, although it will take a long time to achieve such a pact, a former representative to the US said in Taipei yesterday.
“We talked about economic and trade agreements, and financial cooperation will be next. The next thing after that will be a peace agreement, but it will take a long time,” said Stephen Chen (陳錫蕃), who is now a national policy advisor to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). “The so-called confidence-building measures will go beyond a peace agreement.”
MEASURES
Chen made the remarks in response to a reporter’s comment that there seemed to be some concern in Washington about possible military-to-military exchanges between Taiwan and China, as the issue of confidence building has been raised more and more often recently.
Chen said that a peace agreement between both sides of the Taiwan Strait would come before the establishment of confidence building measures because only Taiwan has unilaterally terminated its civil war with China.
“They still think the civil war is not over. That is why the peace agreement is necessary. But a peace agreement does not necessarily include such measures,” he said.
Chen, who also served as convener of the non-government National Policy Foundation, said the US’ Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), which reached its 30th anniversary yesterday, would remain unchanged for a long time despite warming relations across the Taiwan Strait.
TRA
“This particular legislation, the TRA, is the only domestic law of the US that covers its relations with Taiwan, so I think it’s going to last for a long time,” Chen said.
Enacted by the US Congress on April 10, 1979, the TRA is the sole legal document in the US governing bilateral relations. The act requires the US to guarantee defensive arms sales to Taiwan and to maintain the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, the social or economic system of the people of Taiwan.
RELATIONS
Asked whether he thought the US would make any adjustments to the TRA because of concern about the warming relations between Taiwan and China, Chen said he saw no such tendency.
“This development [between Taiwan and China] does not in any way endanger relations between the Republic of China and the US. They can co-exist without any problem,” Chen said.
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