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2012 ELECTIONS: China
talks trade ahead of presidential election
INTERFERENCE: Beijing said it won’t rule out
measures to ‘help’ Taiwan, provided the government, especially one led by the
DPP, sticks to the so-called ‘1992 consensus’
Reuters, BEIJING, with staff writer
Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman
Yang Yi gestures during a press conference in Beijing yesterday.
Photo: CNA
China yesterday dangled the prospect of
more trade and economic incentives for Taiwan ahead of elections next month, but
warned the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that closer ties would be at risk
if it did not change its stance.
China has made little secret of its distaste for the DPP ahead of the Jan. 14
presidential election, even as DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has
laid out a more moderate line on cross-strait ties.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has signed a
series of economic and tourist agreements with Beijing since becoming president
in 2008 and Beijing hopes he is re-elected and continues the rapprochement
process.
Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Yang Yi (楊毅) told a news briefing that
as long as cross-strait relations continued on their present path, Beijing would
not rule anything out when it came to “helping Taiwan’s people and economy.”
“As long as both sides of the Taiwan Strait can continue to maintain the trend
of peaceful development, [more preferential policies] will gradually be rolled
out,” Yang said.
That could include setting up representative offices for the non-government
bodies that handle talks between the two, simplifying entry procedures for
Taiwanese visiting China, or importing Taiwanese rice into China, he said,
without elaborating.
Taiwan’s push for closer economic ties with China reached a milestone last year
when Taipei and Beijing signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA),
which cut import tariffs on about 800 items.
Cross-strait investment agreements for the financial and high-tech industries
are also being considered further down the track.
“When conditions are right, we will sign more deals, using the ECFA to push for
joint prosperity and development,” Yang said.
However, China said trade talks could only take place based on the so-called
“1992 consensus.”
The DPP does not recognize that a consensus was reached then — nor does Lee
Teng-hui (李登輝), who was president at the time, as well as a KMT member — even as
Tsai has said an administration led by her would pursue a “balanced, stable and
moderate” policy toward China.
Beijing has repeatedly accused Tsai of seeking Taiwanese independence, while
saying it would not interfere in the elections. Yang repeated that only by
recognizing the “1992 consensus” could China countenance talking with the DPP.
“If [the DPP] denies the ‘[19]92 consensus’ and obstinately upholds its
splittist position of ‘one country on either side of the Strait,’ then anything
else they say is just empty talk, and there is no way cross-strait dialogue can
happen,” he said.
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