The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) must take a calm approach and engage in constructive talks with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a Chinese academic said yesterday, adding that the DPP’s recent remarks about establishing a party think tank to formulate an approach for dealing with the CCP “signaled a positive development.”
Liu Guoshen (劉國深), director of Xiamen University’s Taiwan Research Institute in China’s Fujian Province, made the remarks on the sideline of an academic seminar in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, on the development of peaceful cross-strait relations. The seminar focused on the political situation in Taiwan and the cross-strait relationship following Taiwan’s special municipality elections on Nov. 27.
Liu said in an interview with the China News Agency that during the past several decades the change from the animosity between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to the current dialog and cooperation has brought more peace, -security, happiness and prosperity to people on both sides of the Strait.
The DPP must consider how it positions itself and whether it is able to play a positive role in the cross-strait political relationship and the future of peaceful developments, Liu said.
Liu said that “the DPP must take a calm approach and engage in rational talks with the CCP, but that does not imply a demand that the two parties reach a consensus in the short term. The two parties should take preventive measures by initiating appropriate and -necessary contacts.”
Regarding the recent suggestion by some DPP officials that think tanks from the DPP and CPP should engage in a dialogue, Liu said both parties would benefit if their think tanks could initiate a dialog in the near future to explore a foundation, channels and forms for initiating official exchanges between both sides.
Healthy bilateral and multilateral relations between the two sides of the Strait and the three main parties would be a positive and significant sign, he added.
Liu said that Taiwan’s recent special municipality elections were what he called “partial elections,” where internal factors — meaning mainly the different candidates — were the key issue, and that the result of the election merely maintained the status quo and no major changes resulted.
“We must not exaggerate the impact of the [Nov. 27] election results on cross-strait relations,” he said.
Liu said it was important to keep in mind that Taiwan cannot steer cross-strait development trends alone. Chinese policy was the most important factor influencing the development of cross-strait relations and China played the decisive role in the cross-strait political situation, he said.
While increasing the standard of living is a concern to both sides of the Strait, so long as China mainly focuses on the issue of peaceful development, cross-strait relations would trend toward peace, friendship and shared benefits, Liu said.
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