Almost three decades after Deng Xiaoping's call for the establishment of the "three links," meaning direct postal, transportation and trade links, it has finally been realized.

Chen began his five-day visit to Taiwan on Monday and the agreements were signed on Tuesday as scheduled. This means that the two ostensibly non-governmental bodies, the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), had reached agreement before Chen got off the plane.

Actually, much of the negotiating was done by the Chen Shui-bian administration but Beijing did not want him to get the credit and so delayed implementation until he had left office.

Chen Yunlin's visit to Taiwan was marked by protests and violence. The pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, now in opposition, held massive demonstrations that turned violent to embarrass the Chinese visitor and the Ma administration.

On Wednesday, Chen was trapped in the Grand Formosa Regent Hotel after dinner there until 2 a.m. because the hotel was surrounded by thousands of protesters. And on Thursday, Ma had to bring forward his meeting with Chen to the morning so as to avoid encountering massive demonstrations.

But why the protests? Since the agreements are on economic topics, why did the DPP mobilize so many people, busing many of them from the south?

The simple answer is that they accuse Ma of "handing Taiwan over to China." If this were really happening, their anger would be understandable. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Ma has been accused of giving up Taiwan's sovereignty because he used the words "Taiwan region." But this is in keeping with Taiwan's laws and constitution, which refers to the "Taiwan region" and the "Mainland region."

This legislation and the constitutional amendment were adopted during the presidency of Lee Teng-hui. That is and remains Taiwan's constitutional framework.That is why Ma has said that the Republic of China's territory includes the mainland, even though it currently does not control it. He is simply returning to the position adopted by the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, in the past-a "one China" position where the Republic of China, Taiwan's formal name, is China and not the People's Republic on the mainland.

Both the Chinese leader Hu Jintao and Ma have talked about a peace agreement. Clearly, such an agreement would need to be very carefully negotiated and its implications studied. Beijing may well want to use such an accord to bind Taiwan to unification. But Taiwan's negotiators can use their skills to formulate the peace accord to the island's advantage. Nothing is set in stone, certainly not yet.

But DPP supporters are already loudly proclaiming a sellout of Taiwan, making irresponsible and inflammatory charges unsupported by any evidence.

Fortunately, most people in Taiwan don't appear to have been taken in by such wild propaganda. According to a survey by the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council, close to 80 percent of respondents said they were happy with the four agreements reached while over 75 percent supported continuation of such negotiations.

Fear of a secret deal is behind DPP demands that all agreements reached should be ratified by the parliament, or Legislative Yuan. The Ma administration should consider this proposal. Since the KMT controls 75 percent of the seats there is little likelihood that the legislature would reject the accords.

Democracy in Taiwan has reached a stage where no government can cut a deal with the Communists and impose it on the 23 million people on the island. That is a reality. However, it is still important for the Ma administration to make its actions and policies as transparent as possible.

This is especially important because in addition to the ARATS-SEF talks, there is another channel that may be even more important: party-to-party talks between the Kuomintang and the Communists.

A session is scheduled for Beijing next month. The talks reportedly will pave the way for the signing of a memorandum of understanding on banking cooperation during the next ARATS-SEF talks in the first half of 2009.

While it is understandable that the mainland may feel more comfortable with party-to-party talks, Taiwan's democracy means that the party cannot replace the government. The SEF cannot be reduced to a rubber stamp to approve whatever agreements are reached by the two political parties.

Columnist Ching can be reached at Frank.ching@gmail.com