Economic path opens for China
reunification By Antoaneta
Bezlova
BEIJING - Mainland China is
betting that a formula of economic rapprochement
with the self-ruled island of Taiwan will advance
its ultimate goal of political reunification
better than emphatic claims of sovereignty
hammered home by Beijing.
The weekend
landslide victory in Taiwan of opposition
presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou, who favors
warmer relations with the mainland, presents
Chinese politicians with an opportunity to boost
economic integration with Taiwan and work on
resuming political talks across the strait.
The victory of Ma Ying-Jeou returns power
to the Nationalist party (KMT) after eight
turbulent years under the Democratic Progressive
Party (DPP), which pursued a course of
independence for Taiwan and resisted closer
economic relations
with the mainland. Beijing
claims the island, separated from the mainland by
the Taiwan Strait, as its territory and has vowed
to pursue reunification, by force if all else
fails.
Ma and the DPP presidential hopeful
Frank Hsieh both said they will not push for
outright independence and promised closer ties
with Beijing, differing only in how quickly and to
what degree they would strengthen relations. Both
have strived to chart a course different to that
of the departing president, Chen Shui-bian, whose
confrontational stance had angered Beijing and
irritated Taiwan's staunchest ally - Washington.
Ma won on promises to accelerate the pace
of cross-strait economic integration and end the
hostility between Taiwan and China. His convincing
victory, which took 58.5% of the vote, illustrates
a perception among the Taiwanese public that the
island should benefit from rather than shun
economic interdependence with the mainland.
"For an island economy like Taiwan's it is
impractical not to want to be part of China's
economic boom," says Taiwanese Raymond Ma who
manages a real estate company in Beijing. "I sense
potential and possibilities here every day and I
think keeping political barriers between Taiwan
and China seems rather outdated."
After
his election, Ma, a Harvard-educated lawyer and
former mayor of Taipei, said he would seek to
establish direct travel links with the mainland
and allow for more tourists from there to visit
Taiwan. He had promised earlier to permit
Taiwanese firms to invest more than 40% of their
assets in the mainland.
During his
campaign, Ma floated the idea of a loose economic
entity between China and Taiwan, modelled on the
Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement that Hong
Kong has with the mainland.
"I will lay
the foundation for a century of peace and
prosperity," Ma said in a news conference after
the election results were announced.
During the weekend vote, Taiwanese voters
rejected two controversial referendums calling for
Taiwan to apply for membership in the United
Nations, one put forward by the DPP and one by the
KMT. The DPP specifically called for the island to
apply to the UN as Taiwan and not under its formal
name of Republic of China, which in DPP's view
reflects the principle that Taiwan and the
mainland still form one China. Beijing condemned
the referendums as a step towards declaring formal
independence.
"Chen Shui-bian's
administration has put forth a referendum to join
the United Nations under the name of Taiwan, but
that referendum has failed, which goes to show
that the people are not in favor of those who
advocate Taiwan independence," Li Weiyi, spokesman
of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the mainland
government's State Council, or cabinet, said in
Beijing.
Apart from Li's officially
sanctioned remarks on the referendum, the state
media exercised restraint before the elections and
in their immediate aftermath. While some
newspapers such as the Southern Weekend have run
lengthy features on the Taiwan elections,
explaining the background of the two candidates
and the mood of the electorate, no comments have
been published for fear of influencing political
developments.
Experts say Beijing has
learned its lesson from previous elections and has
developed a much more sophisticated approach to
dealing with the volatile and proud Taiwanese
electorate.
When the island held its first
democratic election for president in 1996, China
fired dozen of missiles into Taiwan waters, hoping
to deter the island's voters from choosing the
pro-independence candidate Lee Teng-hui. A
native-born Taiwanese, Lee campaigned on a
platform for fostering Taiwanese identity and won.
This year, Beijing opted for a hands-off
approach, which analysts here credit to a change
in mainland's policy to emphasize pragmatism over
idealism that has occurred under the leadership of
president Hu Jintao. The crux of the policy is no
longer political reunification by all means but
opposition to independence.
"Since the
year 2000, when the Democratic Progressive Party
gained power in Taiwan, 'reunification' as the
focal point of the mainland's strategy toward
Taiwan became unrealistic and untenable," said
political scientists Chu Shulong and Guo Yuli in
an article published in the China Security
magazine.
"The decision to adjust the
mainland's strategy to one of 'opposing
independence' was driven by circumstances of the
situation: the political realities and a change in
social attitudes in Taiwan."
Under Hu
Jintao's rule, Beijing has also raised the status
of defense modernization in China's national
strategy, making preparations for a possible
conflict over Taiwan. The defense budget has seen
rapid increased over five years with a sizeable
chunk going to missile development, submarines and
electronic warfare capabilities.
At the
just concluded annual session of Parliament, the
mainland said its military spending this year
would rise nearly 18% to US$57.2 billion.
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