Straits Exchange Foundation Group Visits Mainland China

After more than five years and the ex-perience of the crises caused by mainland Chinese missile tests, Koo Chen-fu, chairman of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), and Wang Daohan, chairman of the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), finally met again, this time in Shanghai, on October 14 of this year.

This meeting symbolizes a restoration of communication between Taiwan and mainland China and is a major breakthrough. The two sides can again express their political convictions face-to-face.

In the future, with tensions between the two sides yet to be resolved, Chinese people in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong-and indeed people all over the world-will be paying close attention to the direction and speed of the "negotiation train."

More than seven years after the founding of the SEF, Koo Chen-fu was delegated by the ROC government to lead an SEF group on a visit to mainland China; this was Koo's first visit to the mainland in his capacity as SEF chairman. The five-day visit ended on October 19th. This was not only the first contact between the SEF and ARATS after more than three years of severed contacts, it succeeds to the first Koo-Wang talks held in Singapore five years ago, bringing the two foundation leaders together once again.

At this recent meeting, Koo Chen-fu and Wang Daohan held two sessions. The group from the SEF also met Chinese Communist president Jiang Zemin, vice premier Qian Qiqian, and other high-level leaders of mainland China. This was the first time that Jiang agreed to meet in China with the leader of an officially commissioned non-governmental group from Taiwan.

The ROC group landed at Shanghai's airport on October 14. They were given the courtesy of a special pass through customs, and were greeted by ARATS vice chairman Tang Shubei and his wife as well as officials from the Shanghai Bureau of Taiwan Affairs. The first session between Koo and Wang was held in the evening of that day, in the Peace Hall of the Peace Hotel, and the second meeting was held the following day.

In the first session, Koo Chen-fu emphasized that the division of the two sides under separate regimes, neither of which was subordinate to the other, had persisted for nearly 50 years. "A divided China" is a historical fact, and even more a contemporary political reality. As for the process of reunification, he expressed hope that the two sides would return to the agreements reached at the time of the Singapore meeting, and as quickly as possible restore systematic discussions to strive to resolve problems of concern to ordinary citizens. The two sides could, while they move forward with functional discussions, bring up political obstacles, and remove these one by one.

On the other side, Wang Daohan emphasized the principle of "one China." He pointed out that the sovereignty and territory of the nation were indivisible and that Taiwan's political status should be discussed under the pre-condition of "one China." He argued that the key to advancing relations between the two sides at this point was political negotiations. Under the one China pre-condition, any other problems could be discussed. Distinguishing between "negotiations" and "dialogue," he argued that even if Taiwan felt that there were difficulties with procedural discussions for negotiations, dialogue could still go forward on all issues which would be of benefit to the peaceful reunification of the two sides, including political issues.

The two sessions clearly aired the very different views of Taipei and Beijing. SEF vice chairman and secretary-general Hsu Huei-you opined that the purpose of this second Koo-Wang meeting was to engage in a constructive exchange of views, and to carry forward work on the various non-political agreements reached at Koo-Wang I. Tang Shubei, on the other hand, contended that with Koo-Wang II the PRC and Taiwan have already entered the era of "political dialogue." He said that there had not been progress on non-political issues because of political differences. If Taipei truly wanted to end animosity between the two sides, he said, it should agree to political dialogue.

Such statements show that neither side altered their basic pre-meeting positions. Nevertheless, the recent Koo-Wang talks achieved four points of consensus. The first three were to strengthen dialogue between the two foundations, to strengthen exchange between the two foundations, and to actively cooperate in dealing with the still-unresolved problem of the safety of compatriots on either side. The fourth point was that Koo personally invited Wang and his wife to visit Taiwan, with Wang Daohan responding that he would accept the invitation to visit the SEF at the appropriate time.

After the Koo-Wang talks in Shanghai, on October 18, Jiang Zemin-in his role as secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party-met SEF chairman Koo in Beijing. During discussions between the two sides, Koo Chen-fu suggested to Jiang that the highest leaders of the two sides could meet at the APEC summit in November. However, Jiang did not make any positive response. Besides this, Koo and Jiang discussed many problems of democratization. Both recognized that more democratization is necessary, but both also agreed that Taiwan's democratization experience cannot be forced on the mainland, and the mainland need not follow the same path as Taiwan.

Koo also met earlier on the same day with Qian Qiqian, though this latter meeting was more confrontational. Koo requested that Communist China stop trying to restrict Taiwan's international space. In response, Qian stated that, under the principle of "one China," the growing restriction of Taiwan's international space was inevitable.

On October 17, Koo Chen-fu met Chen Yunlin, director of the Office of Taiwan Affairs of the PRC's State Council. At that meeting, Chen reiterated Jiang Zemin's "8 Points" and Koo responded by restating Lee Teng-hui's "Six Conditions." Koo quoted ROC Premier Vincent Siew in saying that the Taiwan side advocated using the second Koo-Wang talks as a starting point, and that any subject could be raised for discussion, so long as it was helpful to the peaceful development of relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and the democratic reunification of the country. In particular, the issue of citizens' rights and interests, an area in which many problems have arisen since the beginning of exchanges between the two sides, and which early on was supposed to be the subject of talks between the SEF and ARATS, should receive priority.

Reflecting on his trip, Koo Chen-fu suggested that this was an important starting point for building mutual trust between the two sides. It was for this reason that Taiwan canceled an important set of military exercises originally scheduled for October 2. James Rubin, spokesman for the United States Department of State, said that the resumption of the Koo-Wang talks was a positive development, and that what the United States was concerned about was that the cross-strait issue should be resolved peacefully.

However, as Koo Chen-fu said in a press conference upon arriving in Beijing, the "one China" problem cannot be resolved immediately, and the most serious problem is that the two sides lack mutual trust, seeing each other as enemies.

Thus, on the eve of the Koo-Wang talks, PRC Foreign Ministry spokesman Tang Guoqiang reiterated that, while the PRC hoped that the two sides could be peacefully re-unified, it would not renounce the use of force. David Lee, political vice minister of the ROC Foreign Ministry, stated on October 17 that as Communist China was engaging in discussions with the ROC, at the same time it was actively attempting to establish formal diplomatic relations with a certain country that currently has formal ties to Taiwan.

Faced with the mainland's dual policy of negotiations on the one hand and threats and pressure on the other, the ROC government is actively responding, and domestic opinion has already begun to evaluate the results of this recent meeting. Because members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) were not allowed to participate in the trip, the DPP repeatedly emphasized that it was necessary to clearly state the position that Taiwan is sovereign and independent. To reduce speculation about different factions promoting reunification or independence within Taiwan, Chan Chih-hung, vice Secretary General of the SEF, emphasized that the SEF was doing all it could to maintain the transparency of the talks. No member of the visiting group was at any time during the mainland visit allowed to leave the team at will and meet privately with any other persons.

Although the only member of the Taiwan delegation with a background in the opposition movement, Control Yuan member Kang Ning-hsiang, was not allowed to participate in the Koo-Wang meeting, the DPP still affirmed the talks. Yen Wan-ching, director of the Department of Chinese Affairs at the DPP, pointed out that his party affirmed the construction of a dialogue mechanism and a model for interaction between the two sides to increase understanding. The meeting clarified disagreements that had long existed between the two sides, and confirmed that Taiwan still has many bargaining chips. Moreover, it demonstrated Taiwan's democratic development and autonomy.

With the recent Koo-Wang talks over, although the views of the two sides are clearly far apart, at least there has been some moderate reduction in the tense atmosphere between the two sides. As Koo Chen-fu said: "We do not fear different views, but we must maintain points of intersection and communicate our opinions."

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After a long freeze, cross-strait dialogue has gotten a jump start from the second Koo-Wang talks. (courtesy of the SEF)