China’s top negotiator to Taiwan may call Taiwan an equal partner, but after his five-day visit it is clearer than ever its fate is being dictated by its giant neighbor, analysts said yesterday.
This is putting President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) Beijing-friendly government in an extremely difficult position because only a minority of Taiwanese are comfortable with the idea of unification in the foreseeable term.
“China’s rise is faster than expected, and the changes in international situation are speeding up,” said Liu Bih-rong (劉必榮), an expert on Taiwan-China ties and a political science professor at Soochow University. “Taiwan simply can’t keep asking more without making any compromises.”
Ma took office in May last year promising improved relations with China and a better local economy, and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin’s (陳雲林) visit, which ended yesterday, is the latest sign of rapprochement.
“These talks will help increase mutual trust between the two sides and boost the people’s support,” Straits Exchange Foundation Deputy Chairman Maa Shaw-chang (馬紹章) said. “Therefore, it has helped pave the way for the next round of negotiations in the mainland.”
The negotiations are crucial not just to Beijing and Taipei, but to the region as a whole, since the situation around the Taiwan Strait is one of the last remnants of the Cold War in Asia.
Chen on Monday hailed a series of agreements the two sides have reached in talks “on an equal footing” during Ma’s 19 months in charge.
Three more deals were signed on Tuesday— on food quarantine, industrial standards and fishing crews — but they will be dwarfed by a sweeping trade pact Ma hopes to sign with China next year, arguing it will boost employment.
However, it is likely that China will want its share of benefits from the proposed deal, known as the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA).
“Taiwan is anxious to sign the ECFA, and Taiwan wants to profit from the ECFA, but so does China,” Liu said.
China holds all the cards, given its enormous superiority, with an economy 11 times larger than Taiwan’s, and 58 times as many people.
Basic comparisons of the respective strengths of China and Taiwan — and a simple look at the map — reveal just how weak and exposed Taiwan is.
What is more, China is not content with just economic cooperation, as it repeats as often as it can its ambition of eventually taking over Taiwan politically, militarily and culturally.
“China’s eventual goal is to unify with Taiwan, and China wants to facilitate unification through promoting economic integration with Taiwan,” said Tung Chen-yuan (童振源), a political scientist at National Chengchi University. “But polls show that more Taiwanese lean toward independence than unification despite the economic reliance on China.”
This has heightened public suspicions about the ECFA and could pose a challenge for Ma in securing backing for the deal, analysts said.
It does not help that the public feels left in the dark about the trade pact in the absence of clear details from the government, said Shaw Chong-hai (邵宗海), a political science professor at Chinese Culture University.
“The government has not done enough. That’s why the opposition has been able to stage strong protests against the talks,” he said.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
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