Mainland relations ‘moving forward’
Print Edition
TAIWAN’S leader said yesterday that relations with China’s mainland were moving forward despite widespread public opposition that peaked with an occupation of the government building last year, and that he hopes to cooperate with the mainland on regional economic development.
When Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008, his government stepped up efforts to ease relations with the mainland by avoiding politics to discuss trade, investment and transport links instead.
But Ma’s engagement with Beijing hit its strongest resistance last year when protesters occupied the government building and surrounding streets in Taipei to demand more oversight of relations with the mainland or the cancellation of future agreements.
Opposition to Ma’s mainland policy contributed to steep losses for his Kuomintang party in island-wide local elections in November, analysts said.
“The reason the Kuomintang lost the local elections last year actually had no direct relation to cross-Strait policies, but was mainly about domestic issues,” Ma said at a news conference organized by the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club.
“Last year, cross-Strait relations hit some minor setbacks, but basically they are moving ahead on a course of peaceful development,” he said.
After the protests, he said, the mainland’s top Taiwan policy-maker visited the island in June and the two sides have continued to negotiate an agreement that could cut tariffs on thousands of imports.
Ma must step down next year due to term limits. His party is expected to run a tough race for the January election against the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, which advocates a more “cautious” approach to Taiwan-mainland relations.
China’s mainland and Taiwan have been separately ruled since the Chinese civil war of the late 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang troops lost to Mao Zedong’s communists and set up a rival government on the island.
The two sides have signed 21 agreements since 2008, helping to accelerate Taiwan’s half-trillion-dollar economy.
Taiwan has applied to join the regional infrastructure investment bank Beijing plans to launch.
The mainland was Taiwan’s top trading partner last year, with imports and exports totaling US$130 billion.
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