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Ma’s cross-strait approach worries US:
expert
‘RECKLESS’ VS ‘UNPREDICTABLE’: While former president Chen Shui-bian’s policies
may have been frustrating to the US, the outcomes were clear, the researcher
said
By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Aug 26, 2010, Page 3
Despite the government’s posturing about its success in
cross-strait and foreign policies, Washington is concerned about President Ma
Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) linear approach, a national security expert said yesterday.
Liu Shih-chung (劉世忠), a researcher at the Taiwan Brain Trust think tank and a
former aide to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), said Chen’s “zigzag”
strategy made him unpredictable in setting policy during his two terms in
office.
As frustrating as Chen’s strategy may have been, Washington knew that Chen could
never realize de jure independence because of domestic and external constraints,
Liu said. Additionally, Washington could influence Chen on some policies they
deemed “reckless,” Liu said.
Ma, on the other hand, is more “uncertain” and “unpredictable” because he is
trying too hard and going too fast in his attempts to improve cross-strait ties,
Liu said.
“His linear approach worries many, making Washington wonder exactly how far he
will go and how fast,” he said in an interview with the Taipei Times yesterday
on the sidelines of a presentation for his new book, History Entangled:
Strategic Convergence and Divergence of US-Taiwan Relations (2000-2008).
“While cross-strait relations appear to be stable now, the Americans feel Ma is
more unpredictable because he is unclear about the direction of future
cross-strait ties,” Liu said.
Ma has insisted that his government’s cross-strait policy is to proceed
gradually, tackling both the easy and urgent issues while steadily moving toward
more difficult and less pressing ones, Liu said. Economic issues also precede
political ones.
However, Beijing has been pushing for political talks and Washington is watching
to see how much longer Ma can withstand the mounting pressure, Liu said.
Commenting on his new book — a review of Chen’s leadership during his two terms
in office published by the think tank — Liu said it focused on five major events
and interviewed more than 20 retired officials, think tank experts and opinion
leaders in Taiwan and the US, including Chen and Richard Bush, former chairman
of the American Institute in Taiwan.
The five events are: Chen’s theory of “one country on each side of the Taiwan
Strait” made public in August 2002, the “defensive referendum” introduced in
March 2004, Chen’s handling of China’s “Anti-Secession” Law in March 2005, his
decision to “freeze” the function of the National Unification Council in
February 2006 and his determination to hold a referendum on joining the UN under
the name “Taiwan.”
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