Taiwan has no need to sign a peace accord with Beijing because simply giving up the use of force against Taiwan would result in harmony in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said yesterday.
Huang said he believed President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would ink a peace pact with Beijing as early as 2011 as part of his campaign strategy to ensure a second term.
In a recent interview, Ma, who became the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman on Saturday, said he did not rule out the possibility of meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
The day before Ma assumed the chairmanship, Chao Chun-shan (趙春山), president of a pan-blue think tank, listed three conditions that must be satisfied before Taiwan would be willing to engage in political negotiations with Beijing — the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) and a financial memorandum of understanding (MOU), domestic consensus and acceptance by the international community.
Huang said signs indicate that the Ma administration was ready to start talking politics with Beijing to move toward eventual unification. The forging of an ECFA was just a preliminary step to make Taiwan economically dependent on China before political talks begin, he said.
Huang said that Ma would sign a peace accord with Beijing between March 2012 and the end of that year to coincide with either Ma’s re-election campaign or prior to Hu stepping down.
The signing might even come as early as 2011 if polls show Ma’s chances of a second term would be buttressed by the pact, he added.
RHETORIC
“The peace treaty is just a tactic. The final and only goal is unification. This is why Ma is so eager to sign the ECFA,” he said, lambasting the Ma administration for injecting such rhetoric into the public sphere now to prepare Taiwanese psychologically when Taiwan is firmly locked under the “one-China” framework.
Huang said Taiwan and China have no need for a peace accord because signing such document would signify that both sides are either in a state of war or in civil strife — neither of which accurately describe the current cross-strait situation.
He said since 1991 when former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) ended the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Communist Rebellion (動員戡亂時期條例), Taiwan in a way recognized China’s de jure claim over the mainland and that Taiwan had abdicated all ambition to take China’s territory. But China, he said, had not only refused to reciprocate but each year points more missiles at Taiwan.
Huang warned a Taiwan-China peace accord would lead to Taiwan’s ultimate doom, comparing it to the peace agreement signed between Beijing and Tibet in 1951.
Although the agreement stated the Chinese would respect Tibetan culture and traditions, the government right away forced Sinicization on the Tibetans and disregarded the pact, he said.
In related news, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said a meeting between Ma and Hu would have a positive effect. He did not elaborate.
TAIWAN’S INTERESTS
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) declined to say whether he supported such a meeting when asked by lawmakers on the legislative floor, but Wu said he believed the president would prioritize Taiwan’s interests.
Wu said the government had not set a timetable for a meeting, adding that it would be impossible unless the public formed a consensus on a need for cross-strait political meetings, both sides of the Strait built enough mutual trust and China extended enough goodwill to Taiwan.
“Cross-strait policies must help stabilize cross-strait relations. [We] cannot be hasty or too slow,” Wu told KMT Legislator Huang Chih-hsiung (黃志雄).
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
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