Wither Cross-Strait Relations After WHA?

 Wither Cross-Strait Relations After WHA?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)

May 30, 2017

 Translation of an Except

This year our country was barred from the World Health Assembly (WHA); Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung still led a "Taiwan action delegation to the WHA" to Geneva for protests and exchanges. When the delegation returned, it was received by President Tsai Ying-wen, lauding its performance and setting the tone as a paradigm of "not succumbing to pressure." However, this trip also generally defined the direction for the development of cross-Strait relations after the WHA.

Looking back at the matter, the root of the problem is still the shared cross-Strait political foundation. That is to say, Beijing believes that Tsai Ying-wen does not accept the "1992 Consensus," thus the fact that cross-Strait relations came to a deadlock and our diplomatic front met with a blockade, is almost a foreseeable development. In other words, we could say it is a dispute over whether the chicken or the egg came first, or the question of what is cause and what is effect.

During the past year, we often saw populist confrontations in the private sector; during the period of the WHA meetings, the governments on both sides of the Strait even exchanged barbs through the media. After several rounds of clashes, the mercury rose; the hostile sentiments across the Strait have become increasingly apparent. And Tsai Ying-wen, on the other hand, faces an onslaught of pro-Taiwan independence advocates, while Xi Jinping must, even more, take care of the deployment of power for the 19^th Party National Conference. Here, we don’t really see the opportunity for realizing the cross-Strait "structural cooperative relations" expected by Tsai Ying-wen, we rather worry about the possible escalation in a tendency by both sides towards "structural confrontational relations."

After the squirmishes at the WHA, let’s think again about the possible development of cross-Strait relations. Judging from the contrast of bilateral strengths, the changing regional situation, and the reality of international politics, we fear that time is not on Taiwan’s side.

For this reason, after Tsai Ying-wen lauded the performance of the action delegation to the WHA, she should ponder even more carefully this important issue: whither cross-Strait relations after the WHA?

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