Sources: All Taipei Newspapers

 

December 10, 2013

 

 

A lengthy set of resolutions which includes sections on the Mainland’s Taiwan policies was adopted during the third plenary session of the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).  People in Taiwan are most concerned about what impact the resolutions will have on cross-Strait relations.  Scholars on both sides of the Strait opined that the establishment of Mainland’s National Security Council would impact the Mainland’s Taiwan policies.

 

Tung Li-wen (董立文), an associate professor of the Graduate School of Public Security at the Central Police University in Taiwan, stated that the majority of the resolutions would have no direct impact on Taiwan, only an indirect impact.  Tung added that the sections of the resolutions involving Taiwan were nothing new, but we should pay attention to two facets: the flow of the Mainland’s policy-making toward Taiwan following the establishment of the National Security Council (NSC) and whether the functions of the  Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs ( 對台工作領導小組 ) would have any changes.

 

In the eyes of Mainland scholars, the Mainland’s NSC was a new organization to suppress forces of the Taiwan independence movement.  Wang Chien-ming (王建民), a research fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Taiwan Studies in Beijing, stated that the NSC was an integrated organization to deal with terrorism, separatism, and radical religious groups both within and outside of the Mainland’s borders.  Wang went on to say that overall the main objective of the NSC was to maintain stability, but the possibility of handling the Taiwan independence movement could not be ruled out.  Wang pointed out that Taiwan might undergo great changes in the next four years and the Taiwan independence movement was one of the gravest threats within the nation’s borders.