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Beijing can still afford to turn a
‘blind eye’
By Lu I-ming 呂一銘
Thursday, Feb 25, 2010, Page 8
During the Lunar New Year break, Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) went to
Fujian Province to visit the Taiwanese business community in Zhangzhou. Speaking
on the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), Hu said that “as long as
it is beneficial to our Taiwan compatriots, we will do our best to make it
happen. We say it, and we will do it.”
He also gave an assurance that Chinese agricultural products wouldn’t be
exported to Taiwan. These comments, aimed directly at the Taiwanese public, will
be welcomed by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) at a time when he is seeing a fall
in his popularity rating and general reputation.
If you think about it, Beijing’s bark of late seems to be much worse than its
bite. Look at its handling of issues involving the Dalai Lama or exiled Uighur
leader Rebiya Kadeer; or its response to US arms sales to Taiwan. Another
example came during the Lunar New Year break, when Ma received US representative
and member of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming,
James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
During the meeting, Ma described the signing of the ECFA as an agreement between
“two nations,” although this phrase was soon amended to “two sides” on the
official Web site of the office of the Republic of China president. Beijing
turned a blind eye for a few reasons.
Ma said early on that he had signed up to the idea of “eventual unification,”
and the policy of his party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), was to be open
to dialogue with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in what have become known as
the KMT-CCP forums. Beijing, therefore, is willing to be very forgiving when Ma
appears, for all intents and purposes, to be overstepping apparently sacrosanct
lines. Beijing brushes off these “transgressions” as nothing but
“election-speak” or actions done for appearances’ sake for the audience in
Taiwan. How else could they play it, if Ma cannot even be assured of a second
term come the 2012 presidential election?
Ma has already put the signing of the ECFA on his to-do list for this year. In
making these assurances to Taiwanese businesspeople during the Lunar holidays,
Hu was clearly trying to set the correct conditions for Ma, to grease the
wheels.
However, despite the fact that Taiwan is a democracy, the government and
opposition parties do not actually have any say over what is decided in the ECFA
talks. As it stands, agreements made during these talks automatically come into
effect around one month after they are signed, a matter of some confusion and
frustration for the general public.
There should be some form of legislative oversight to supervise cross-strait
issues, or they could be decided by public referendums. So far a total of 12
cross-strait agreements have been signed, and a consensus reached — things are
not moving slowly. This makes the case for oversight all the more pertinent.
Furthermore, the operating principles of the Legislative Yuan’s Cross-Strait
Commission (兩岸事務因應對策小組) can be altered with a single amendment.
The ECFA talks have already become a kind of benchmark for the KMT-CCP forum.
Last year there were visits by two CCP committee members, with another round of
delegations headed by three more committee members expected this year for a
number of economic, trade and cultural exchanges.
One suspects that Beijing already sees Taiwan as a “provincial level”
administrative unit. With the signing of the ECFA looming, you would be forgiven
for feeling a sense of foreboding about the KMT’s apparent rashness.
Lu I-ming is the former publisher and president of the Taiwan
Shin Sheng Daily News.
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