Arms deal causing China, U.S rift

After all, as a group of senior Communist elders recently pointed out, the party's position in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s was that China should become a federal republic. Perhaps it was politically expedient to advocate such a position in those days, before the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

But perhaps it is now again politically expedient to advocate, or at least not oppose, such a possibility with the idea of reaching out to Taiwan. There is no reason why the Chinese government should not again explore various possibilities.

Besides a federation, other possible options are a confederation, which is a somewhat looser union, since its members can in theory leave the federation if they wish. A confederation has been proposed for the Palestinians and the Jordanians.

Another possibility is a commonwealth. Members of the British Commonwealth, for example, pay allegiance to the British crown even though they are independent countries. Conceivably, Taiwan and the mainland can both be part of a Chinese commonwealth.

Even Chen Shui-bian, when he was president, was willing to consider some kind of political unification. One possibility mentioned was to use the European Union as a model.

Beijing vetoed the idea since all the components of the EU are sovereign states, and it insists that Taiwan is not now and can never become a sovereign state.

But should this position, too, be re-examined? After all, as the late Deng Xiaoping said, it doesn't matter if a cat is black or white so long as it is able to catch mice.

What is important is the end result.

Frank.ching@gmail.com

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