bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= … refer=asia
[quote]
Taiwan Presidential Hopeful to Seek China Peace Pact (Update1)
By James Peng and Stephen Engle
Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) – Taiwan’s opposition Nationalist Party wants to negotiate a peace agreement with China if it wins the presidential election in 2008, seeking to end five decades of hostility, Chairman Ma Ying-jeou said.
The party aims to conclude a deal by 2012 that would ensure Taiwan’s security from attack in exchange for a guarantee that the island won’t seek independence, Ma, 56, the Nationalists’ likely presidential candidate, said in an interview on Oct. 19. A precondition is that China remove the 800 missiles it has pointing at Taiwan from its eastern coast and inland, he said.
The Harvard graduate’s promise of lowered tension with China and boosted business prospects may help persuade voters to return his party to power. China’s government, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory to be reunified by force if necessary, has been forging closer ties with the Nationalists as it seeks to isolate the island’s pro-independence President Chen Shui-bian.
We're talking about normalization,'' Ma said at Taipei's City Hall, where he also serves as mayor of the island's capital.
We have not really terminated the state of hostilities between the mainland and Taiwan.’’
China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since a civil war ended in 1949, when Mao Zedong’s Communists forced the Nationalist army of Chiang Kai-shek to retreat to the island, 90 miles from the mainland coast. China has said repeatedly that any declaration of independence by Taiwan would mean war.
Business Ties
The Nationalists, also known as the Kuomintang, lost the presidency to the Democratic Progressive Party’s Chen in 2000, ending their postwar hold on power. In his six years as president, Chen has provoked Beijing by calling Taiwan a sovereign state, proposing an overhaul of the island’s 59-year-old constitution, and trying to get Taiwan a United Nations seat.
Almost 60 years after the civil war’s end, those policies are prompting warmer relations between the heirs of Mao and Chiang. Ma’s predecessor Lien Chan met President Hu Jintao in the mainland last year, the highest-level talks between the two sides since 1949. China has offered trade concessions to woo Taiwan voters.
A peace agreement would help reduce security tensions in East Asia, where the U.S. is preoccupied with the North Korea nuclear crisis. It might also benefit Taiwan’s $346 billion economy by allowing businesses to forge closer ties with the mainland. Taiwan companies have invested as much as $150 billion in mainland China, the island’s largest trading partner.
Ma’s offer of peace talks didn’t include a commitment to move toward reunification, the goal of the government in Beijing. The Nationalists adhere to a ``one China’’ principle agreed with the Communist government in 1992, which declares the mainland and Taiwan are part of the same country, though the two sides may have different interpretations of the term.
Direct Links
China has proposed reunification under the ``one country, two systems’’ model used to return the former British colony of Hong Kong in 1997, a formula Taiwan’s Chen has rejected.
The Nationalists’ policy is that unification is an option'' to be decided by Taiwan's 23 million people and could only be achieved after China has evolved into a country of
freedom, democracy and prosperity,’’ party spokesman Huang Yu-cheng said.
Ma said a Nationalist government initially would seek the restoration of what are known as the ``three links:’’ direct trade, air and shipping routes, and postal services, which were severed after 1949. The Nationalists would also consider liberalizing Taiwan’s restrictions on investment in China and ending a ban on mainland investments in the island.
It's going to be a two-way treatment,'' said Ma, who defeated President Chen when the latter sought re-election as Taipei mayor in 1998.
It’s going to be normal relations between the two parts of the Taiwan Strait.’’
Missile Threat
China’s $2.2 trillion economy grew more than 10-fold since pro-market reforms started in the late 1970s, powered partly by investment from Taiwan. Growth has exceeded 10 percent for the past three years, the fastest pace of any major economy.
Direct links with China and easing investment restrictions there surely are welcomed by Taiwanese businesses with investments in China,'' said Tim Li, chief financial officer of Quanta Computer Inc., the world's biggest notebook computer maker, which has factories in the mainland.
In general, these measures help save costs and upgrade competitiveness.’’
Direct links would end ``political stagnation’’ between the two sides, after which Taiwan would ask for talks on a peace agreement, Ma said.
We can assure the other side we will not shoot for independence,'' he said.
We can’t really let the missiles targeted against Taiwan remain intact when we negotiate for a peace agreement. We have to negotiate the peace agreement from strength, not weakness.’’
Farm Pact
China’s missiles are perceived as ``a gun to Taiwan’s neck’’ and would have to be removed for peace talks to take place, said Andrew Yang, secretary general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies in Taipei.
China agreed on Oct. 17 to buy more fishery products, fruit and vegetables from Taiwan, at a forum in Hainan province attended by former Nationalist Party Chairman Lien. Taiwan’s 591,000 farmers are the biggest supporters of Chen’s DPP.
The island’s government still limits investment across the Taiwan Strait out of concern that the mainland will grab business or steal advanced technology.
China must renounce the use of force against Taiwan'' and hold talks on an
equal footing’’ before a peace agreement could be reached, Taiwan cabinet spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang said in a telephone interview today. The DPP doesn’t accept the one-China principle.
Nuclear Weapons
Ma, who was born in Hong Kong and moved to Taiwan when he was one year old, has a law degree from National Taiwan University, a Master of Laws from New York University and a Doctor of Juridical Science from Harvard. His first job in government was as a personal translator for President Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai- shek’s son, in the early 1980s.
What we should do is minimize the threat and maximize the opportunities,'' Ma said.
There are 100,000 Taiwanese companies currently investing in mainland China. The two economies are interwoven to an extent unparalleled in history.’’
Following a peace agreement, Ma said he would seek to negotiate on Taiwan’s need for more ``international space,’’ or recognition by countries and international organizations.
Ma, speaking 10 days after North Korea tested a nuclear weapon, said that Taiwan also possessed the technical ability to produce atomic weapons, but had foresworn them.
``We have long obtained the capability of developing nuclear weapons but we also have declared long ago we won’t do that, because our problem with the mainland can’t be solved by nuclear weapons. It has to be solved by negotiations, political negotiations. There is no way Taiwan can compete with China in an arms race.’’ [/quote]
His stance is so common sense on this issue. The extremists may try to keep their heads buried deep in the sand, but after 2008, cross-strait relations will likely enter a new era.