The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration must strengthen dialogue with the opposition now that cross-strait negotiations have resumed, academics attending a forum said yesterday.
Chang Wu-ueh (張五岳), director of Tamkang University’s Institute of China Studies, said Beijing sent seasoned negotiators to the high-profile meetings last week, while Taipei negotiators were inexperienced, being new to their positions.
At the outset of negotiations between the quasi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), Chang said the country must strengthen its preparedness for negotiations and cultivate strong negotiators.
The country must use its partisan politics to its advantage and turn dissent into an asset for cross-strait negotiations rather than a liability, he said.
Chang made the remarks while addressing a forum organized by the Taiwan Thinktank in Taipei to discuss the resumption of talks between the SEF and ARATS.
Chang said although both sides agreed on certain issues, Taipei’s expectations for Beijing was based on economics, while Beijing’s expectations for Taipei were political.
Chang said he would like to know whether Beijing would satisfy Taipei’s economic agenda if the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration failed to please Beijing’s political expectations.
Chang said the official negotiation channel should be the one and only channel. Contact between political parties should be in the form of dialogues or exchanges between both sides, he said.
He also dismissed the proposal that legislators participate in cross-strait negotiations as “weird” because it would be strange to have legislators attend negotiations and come back to approve an agreement they signed at the negotiation table.
Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), director of Soochow University’s political science department, said the Ma administration had acted too hastily in making his election promise a reality and that he was worried it would put Taiwan at a disadvantage at the negotiation table.
It was worrisome that the Mainland Affairs Council and the SEF are competing for dominance in setting cross-strait policy and that the administration pinned the country’s economic prosperity on the goodwill of Beijing, he said.
He also expressed concern over the lack of supplementary programs to welcome more Chinese tourists.
He said he would like to know whether the eight airports opened to weekend charter flights are well equipped, local hotels are able to accommodate more Chinese tourists and if more Chinese tourists will crowd out local or Japanese tourists.
Lo said the cross-strait atmosphere may seem good now, but at the end of the day, the country must face the reality of whether it was worth it to have more Chinese tourists but lose visitors from other countries.
“When both sides are under pressure that they cannot afford to backtrack, they are bound to bump into difficulties,” he said.
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