by
N. Peter Kramer
During his visit to mainland China, a member of the Taiwanese opposition party DD, Lai Ching-te said that Taiwan's future is in its own hands. In a remarkable reaction, mainland China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman, Fan Liqing, told reporters that Beijing's stance on Taiwan has not changed : ‘Taiwan and mainland China are not separate countries, but are two parts of the same nation that have not yet reunited’.
A spokesperson of the Taiwanese Presidential Office said in a statement that President Ma has always insisted, that the future of Taiwan rests with its people and the Constitution of the Republic of China. The Mainland Affairs Council, the Taiwanese government body in charge of cross-Strait relations, also issued a statement supporting the right of the people of Taiwan to determine their own future.
APEC best venue for meeting of both Chinese leaders
ROC President Ma Ying-jeou said also that, since mainland China's leader Xi Jinping assumed the presidency last year, he has been very active in developing relations with Taiwan and a suitable occasion for a meeting between him and Xi would be the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit. Ma said the venue would be acceptable to the Taiwan public, but added that there seems to be some difficulties for Beijing to agree on such a proposal. This year's APEC meeting will be held in Beijing from 10 to 11 November and will be attended by leaders of the 21 APEC members.
Since 1991, Taiwan has been a full member of this organisation which pursues free trade and economic cooperation. When Xi met with Taiwan’s former Vice President Vincent Siew at the APEC Summit last year, he said that in the “long term”, political differences between the two sides must be resolved and not be passed on from
generation to generation.
Ma calls for unity
Recently ROC President Ma Ying-jeou urged the Taiwanese opposition to set aside partisanship and work together to pass a bill to monitor cross-Strait negotiations. He also underlined the need to ratify the trade-in-services agreement with mainland China, warning that Taiwan risks being isolated by delaying it. Ma stressed that maintaining barriers to trade with mainland China will only weaken Taiwan’s economy, as mainland China is an integral part of the global supply chain. Considering the fact that mainland China and South Korea are about to sign a free trade agreement by the end of 2014, 2 to 5% of Taiwan’s exports could be replaced by South Korean products, so trade liberalisation and cooperation with mainland China is unavoidable.
