Lai Shin-yuan: No Timetable for Political Talks Across Taiwan Strait

Lai Shin-yuan: No Timetable for Political Talks Across Taiwan Strait

Sources: All Taipei newspapers

July 13, 2009

Lai Shin-yuan, chairwoman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), which coordinates Taiwan's policy toward Mainland China, said that although cross Taiwan Strait relations have thawed and improved substantially over the past 13 months, it does not mean that the two sides have built mutual trust.

"Conditions for the leaderships of the two sides to talk about political issues have not yet matured and we are in no hurry for that, " Lai said during a luncheon with leaders of Taiwanese expatriate communities in the Greater New York area.

Lai acceded that officials from Taiwan and Mainland China have engaged in institutional dialogue via the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) intermediate bodies over the past year, and said this means that cross-strait relations have evolved from the previous "mutual denial" to a "mutual non-denial" mode.

She said both Taiwan and Mainland China should adopt a "shelving differences, mutual non-denial" attitude to face the reality across the strait in a pragmatic manner.

President Ma Ying-jeou's administration will, via the SEF-ARATS conduit, promote cross-strait relations in a composed, sophisticated and steady-paced way, while safeguarding the "Taiwan first" stance with the people's interests as the top priority, Lai said.

Turning to the economic front, Lai said the export economy is Taiwan's lifeline. As an island economy, the country must face the fast trends of globalization and regional economic blocs taking shape, and cannot afford to ignore the reality of Mainland China's rise. Contradicting claims by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, she said an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and Mainland China is by no means an indenture by which Taiwan will sell itself to Mainland China, but she also noted that it is not a life-saving panacea through which Taiwan will revive its sagging economy.

In addition, she went on, the signing of an ECFA with Mainland China involves no question of sovereignty, independence or unification issues, nor any political prerequisite.

Noting that Mainland China has entered free trade agreements with 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a pact that is expected to come into effect Jan. 1, 2010, she said an ECFA will be a lever through which Taiwan can return to the world stage.

She is scheduled to make a Monday visit to the National Committee on American Foreign Policy and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, two New York-based think tanks, for closed-door meetings with China hands, and is also scheduled to deliver a speech the following day at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C., on the latest developments in cross-strait relations.

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