Taiwan’s opposition also seek dialogue with Beijing
Taipei (AsiaNews) - Representatives of the opposition DPP (Democratic Progressive Party, 民进党) have suddenly decided to meet with official representatives of the Government of the Republic of China or with their counterparts.
Two months have
passed since the occupation of students occupied parliament - with the explicit
support of the DPP - protesting over advantages granted to the continent with
the signing of the Service Cross-Strait Trade Agreement, and ratification of
the 2010 ECFA (Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement - in Chinese 海峡 两岸 经济 合作 架构 协议).
However,
seeing no other alternative to direct talks with representatives of the
continent, DPP leader Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), (right in photo), announced this week she
wanted to meet them to clarify the positions of those Taiwanese who
do not feel represented by the current Kuomintang government (KMT, 国民党).
Tsai Ing-wen is not alone in doing so: within the party,
the mayor of Tainan, Lai Ching-te (赖清德)
yesterday went to Shanghai to meet his counterpart Yang Xiong (杨雄), Mayor of the Chinese megalopolis.
Even
Lai Ching-te justified his trip as a means to represent those Taiwanese who do
not feel represented by the Taipei government.
Tsai
Ing-wen wants to meet Zhang Zhijun (张志军), the Chinese minister responsible for
relations with Taiwan, in the DPP headquarters.
KMT representatives have expressed very positive opinions about this possibility. At a press conference late yesterday the KMT spokesman, Charles Chen (陈 以 信), said that "it is really important that the talks with the mainland representatives continue to clarify all positions as much as possible to arrive at a non-adversarial discourse among representatives Taiwanese".
He then states that Tsai Ing-wen should clarify her position on the "1992 consensus" (九二 共识), with which Beijing and Taipei agreed to copnsider the existence of "one China." Chen pointed to this as the basis for further political agreements. The DPP does not officially recognize the 1992 meeting as a "consensus" between parties (semi-official) because the encounter failed to produce a "consensus" on what "one China" means as a principle of agreement (一个 中国 政策). In fact, the "consensus" was (perhaps deliberately) ambiguous, leaving each party open to imagining a future under the dictatorship of the Communist Party of China or Taiwan as a democratic republic in style. Despite these ambiguities, the "consensus" has served to bring the two sides of the Strait closer.
With the
proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek (蒋中正) and the remnants of the Kuomintang fled to Taiwan, moving the Republic of
China there. Since
the 80s Taipei and Beijing have come a lot closer to rapprochement. The
relations between the two sides of the Strait have improved dramatically since
Ma Ying-jeou (马英九) became president of Taiwan (2008) and opened a
policy of dialogue with Beijing. On
29 June 2010 a commercial agreement between Taipei and Beijing (ECFA) was
established, which created an area of preferential trade between the island
and the mainland. This
was a necessary step for Taiwan to secure international trade agreements
possible through Beijing's consent. The
recent protests were provoked by the manner in which the trade pact that Taipei
is discussing with Beijing was debated - or rather, not debated at all . This
causes heavy criticism from the opposition, accusing President Ma Ying-jeou and
his government "not to reveal important points of the subsequent
negotiations" and "wanting to sign agreements without the express
will of the people."
All
this eventually led to the students protest (the "sunflowers protest")
which occupied the parliament between 18 March and 10 April and the
government's decision to review the entire path of the Agreement point by point.
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02/09/2021 13:35
