3 Decades of Cross-Strait Relations End in Impasse/Shall We Fight for the Past or the Future?

 3 Decades of Cross-Strait Relations End in Impasse/Shall We Fight for the Past or the Future?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

October 30, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

Cross-Strait exchanges endured for thirty years, but now they have entered a deadlock. According to the observations of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, this impasse is the best situation that both sides of the Strait can hope for; the situation may deteriorate. Tsai Ying-wen is visiting diplomatic partners in the South Pacific; she meticulously arranged a stop-over in Hawaii before the Trump-Xi Summit, strengthening Taiwan’s appeal as a reliable partner of the United States. This is precisely intended to be an effort to avoid an impact on the cross-Strait situation as a result of the imbalance in US-China-Taiwan relations. However, not only has the regional situation been developing rapidly, changes in the cross-Strait situation are also further and further beyond the grasp of Taiwan.

Tsai Ying-wen has stressed that the DPP's core concept is that cross-Strait policies are people-oriented, deliberately underscoring the DPP's contributions to the policy allowing veterans to visit their homes on the Mainland 30 years ago. She urges the two ruling parties across the Strait to lay down their historical baggage and develop benign dialogue. However, Xi Jinping has clearly indicated that as long as Taiwan recognizes the “1992 Consensus” and agrees that both sides of the Strait belong to one China, both sides can start dialogue, nor will there be any obstacles for exchanges between the DPP and the CCP. Zhang Zhijun, director of the Mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO，國台辦) under the State Council also stressed that the Mainland has not changed the fundamental policy toward Taiwan and that it was the DPP authorities that led to the impasse by jettisoning the "1992 Consensus."

Now Tsai Ying-wen has shown expectations for making a breakthrough in the cross-Strait impasse, while cross-Strait relations are being harmed again as a result of talking past each other without a focus. Tsai Ying-wen may compete to seek credit for the past cross-Strait exchanges, but as to any breakthrough in the current cross-Strait deadlock, she has made no advance, let alone shown any capability of preventing the cross-Strait situation from worsening in the future. All the while, it seems that Xi Jinping is not anxious to crack the cross-Strait deadlock; he believes that time stands on the side of the "great renaissance of the Chinese nation."

If we say that the impasse is the best situation that both sides of the Strait can hope for at the moment, then changes in the situation, both internally and externally, are worrisome. The fruits of the cross-Strait exchanges over the past three decades must be cherished; the Tsai government should pragmatically face the true trials of the new cross-Strait situation. This will not be achieved by some young literati-style empty rhetoric, trying to circumvent the "1992 Consensus."

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