Ex-ambassador provides positive cross-strait analysis

Galsworthy, who was the British Ambassador to China from 1997 to 2002, was referring to the fact that the improvement in relations between Taiwan and China is a positive development in what has otherwise been an extremely trying year for China, given the unrest in Tibet, the trouble surrounding the Olympic torch relay and the Sichuan earthquake.

Galsworthy noted that Beijing is pleased that Ma Ying-jeou and the Kuomintang (KMT) is back in power after eight years under Chen Shui-bien’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). According to Galsworthy, the Chinese authorities were taken by surprise by the DPP’s electoral success in 2000 and 2004. It took the authorities quite some time to formulate a strategy for dealing with Taiwan, even if the end result was the firm decision not to talk to the Chen administration.

Now, cross-strait relations have gotten off to a great start under the Ma administration with agreements on direct flights and Chinese tourists already completed, in addition to cargo and transportation talks due in a few months. However, this is the easy part.

As Galsworthy pointed out, talks have so far, by mutual consent, avoided the difficult issues of business and economics. For instance, Beijing has not reacted directly to Ma’s three “No’s” - specifically the second “No” of no reunification. But sooner or later, issues with political aspects or implications will have to be laid on the table, and it will not be easy to reach agreement.

For instance, the KMT’s desire for a more active and prominent role in the international playing field will be difficult to negotiate without some discussion on the issues concerning Taiwan’s sovereignty. However, while agreement here will be much harder to reach, there are signs that the Chinese authorities are open to being a little more flexible when dealing with Taiwan. For example, certain high profile figures in China have called for new thinking on Taiwan and even suggested that the “one country, two systems” model used in Hong Kong might not be suitable for Taiwan.

These kinds of comments would have been regarded as heresy just a few years ago. Nevertheless, discussions of this nature should be seen as merely exploratory at this point, and it is likely to take the Chinese authorities quite some time to reach internal consensus on how to settle these issues.

In summary, Galsworthy said he is optimistic that cross-strait relations will continue to improve, although he does not expect any significant political breakthroughs soon. He did, however, express the hope that China would remove its missiles targeted at Taiwan. Since missiles are easy to move, such an action would make little difference militarily but would be a significantly symbolic gesture to demonstrate China’s peaceful intentions towards Taiwan.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email