Time not ripe to exchange offices: MAC

“The MAC hopes to gradually achieve the goal through increasing two-way interactions, systematic negotiations and building mutual trust, but will never exchange Taiwan’s national sovereignty for economic benefits,” said Lai.

“In contrast, it will further highlight Taiwan’s independent sovereignty from China and set the stage for the two sides to conduct negotiations on an equal footing,” she said.

Lai made the remarks while explaining the government’s cross-Taiwan Strait policy at a public meeting in southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung County.

Cross-strait relations entered a new era in which Taiwan and China will not deny the other side’s existence after a historic meeting between Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman P.K. Chiang and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) President Chen Yunlin in early November in Taipei, Lai said.

In a follow-up to their first-ever encounter in June in Beijing, Chiang and Chen inked four pacts during their second meeting in Taipei, agreeing to establish direct daily charter flights, open shipping and postal services and set up a reporting mechanism on food safety control.

The meeting means that China does not deny Taiwan’s existence, which is an improvement from the past, when the two sides did not recognize each other and when cross-strait exchanges were restricted, Lai pointed out.

The SEF and ARATS are semi-official bodies authorized by Taipei and Beijing, respectively, to handle cross-strait interaction in the absence of official contact between the two sides. The MAC oversees SEF operations.

As Taiwan-China trade totaled over US$130 billion last year, the government needs an effective mechanism to help Taiwan’s people resolve their problems arising from two-way dealings and to guarantee fair negotiations between the two sides, she said.

Through the systematic SEF-ARATS negotiations, the government is poised to further strengthen Taiwan’s sovereignty in a gradual fashion instead of in a reckless manner, Lai went on.

Chiang and Chen are slated to discuss issues relating to joint crime-fighting efforts, fishery cooperation, cross-strait financial supervision, and the signing of an accord to protect Taiwanese business interests in China during the third round of their talks scheduled for next spring, she added.

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