Beijing is exerting “immense pressure” on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration to move toward cross-strait political dialogue that will lead to a peace agreement and unification, a former top Taiwanese official has warned.
“Ma has so far stuck to a formula of ‘economics first, politics later,’ limiting cross-strait interaction to economic relations,” former National Security Council secretary-general Parris Chang (張旭成) said.
However, Beijing will not take no for an answer and has been doing what it can to “pressure, push and prod” Ma’s regime to change course, he said.
In a paper published by the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, Chang — a professor emeritus of political science at Pennsylvania State University — said that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is “pushing harder and faster” to implement Beijing’s policy agenda in Taiwan.
Chang says that during Ma’s second term in office, China’s efforts to bring Taiwan further into the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) orbit have backfired —– resulting in a weakened presidency “that cannot deliver the mainland’s goals.”
As a result, Beijing appears to be looking ahead to the next two elections “trying to make as much progress as possible before Ma leaves office while simultaneously trying to establish ties with possible successors,” Chang said.
Chang says that former Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) confided to his inner circles that it was easier and less expensive to “buy” Taiwan than to “conquer it through military means.”
“Beijing’s implementation of this strategy has employed both economic means and a united-front operation to make inroads among corporate leaders, ruling and opposition parties, the media and the public,” Chang said. “But Beijing does not offer a free lunch — Chinese leaders’ ultimate goal is unification.”
Beijing has utilized economic means to “reach out to and co-opt Taiwan’s business elite” and as a result “most of the business elite have become staunch supporters of cross-strait rapprochement.”
Chang said that Xi has placed Ma in a difficult position, repeatedly forcing him to choose between the demands of Beijing and those of Taiwanese.
“His attempts to navigate these demands have contributed to declining poll numbers and a widespread perception that he is a lame-duck president,” Chang said.
From Beijing’s perspective, the service trade agreement is also intended to perform “vital political and united-front functions in Taiwan.”
“As shown by the experience of Hong Kong,” the pact will provide legal cover for China’s agents to live and work in Taiwan, Chang said.
“Through Chinese enterprises and shops, China’s operatives will be able to use the pact to continue to build up resources and capabilities to influence Taiwan’s political process and strive for peaceful unification,” he said.
With the seven-in-one elections to be held at the end of the year and the presidential and legislative elections in 2016, many Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) leaders — and Beijing — are apprehensive that voters could reject KMT candidates this year and vote the KMT out of government in 2016, Chang said.
“Beijing has much at stake and appears to be seeking alternatives to the Ma government,” he added.
Chang said Beijing “is sure” to try to intervene and try to influence the outcome of Taipei’s mayoral election this year and the presidential and legislative elections in 2016.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
RSS