Cross-strait relations between the Chinese mainland and the Republic of Taiwan have made significant progress with an extension of goodwill to Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which strives for Taiwanese independence. Earlier this month, Kaohsiung municipality Mayor Chen Chu became the highest ranking DPP official to have set foot on the mainland. Not only is Chen mayor of one of Taiwan’s two municipalities (the highest level classification for cities, with the other municipality being Taipei), but she is also one of the DPP’s founding members and serves on its Central Standing Committee.
It was the Kuomintang (KMT), the founding party of the Republic of Taiwan, that broke the ice with the historic exchange in 2005 between Lien Chan, the KMT’s honorary chairman and Hu Jintao, the President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). However, while relations between the KMT and the mainland are based on mutual trust, opposition to Taiwan’s independence and acceptance of the 1992 consensus—an understanding between China and then ruling KMT that there is only one China, and that Taipei and Beijing were each free to interpret the meaning of “one China” in their own ways—the DPP’s visit was strictly for business, with direct references to Taiwan’s president, central government and the Taiwanese visitors’ own official titles.
The significance of this move by the DPP lies in its practical nature and should not be interpreted as a sign of DPP’s weakness. First, as president of the Kaohsiung 2009 World Games Organizing Committee, Chen Chu is obliged under the International World Games Association to promote the World Games to be held this July. Second, in the face of mainland’s economic might and significant rise in cross-strait investment and trade figures, the DPP realizes the futility of maintaining a course of refusing any contact with the mainland. Recent statistics indicate that an estimated 750,000 Taiwanese now reside and do business in the PRC with cumulative Taiwanese investment on the mainland since the late 1980s estimated at more than $100 billion. That aside, trade across the strait—mostly Taiwanese exports—exceed $110 billion annually.
It seems that at this juncture in history, Taiwan simply can not afford to avoid the mainland. Nor does it need to. Both China and Taiwan are encouraging mainland electronics, telecommunications and other businesses to invest in Taiwan, and more mainland tourists are now visiting the island as regular direct air and maritime restrictions have been lifted. Last month, authorities opened the doors for limited Chinese investment on the island—which until now was largely prohibited. It is argued that fresh funds could help stimulate Taiwan’s economy, which shrank by a record 10.2 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier. Taiwanese companies are hoping to use the opportunity to expand out of low-end manufacturing to branch out into the still underdeveloped service sector. The key is that Taiwan is free to regulate and monitor mainland investments on the island by protecting industries and sectors that matter. Already, authorities have not permitted state-owned China Mobile’s bid to acquire a 12 percent stake in Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., apparently because of security issues.
The strengthening of economic ties and official visits can be constructive and stand a better chance for healthy political development in the long run. Rather than staging meaningless protests against KMT officials attending the World Health Assembly as observer and a representative of “Chinese Taipei,” thus belittling Taiwan, the very least that the political parties in Taiwan can do is to appear to be united with common purposes of upholding the spirit of the rule of law, principles of a democratic society and economic prosperity. The hard core separatists in Taiwan need to understand that engaging with the PRC does not mean giving up these principles. As the DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen states, “DPP supporters must grow.” In Chen Chu’s words, “Taiwan will continue to survive only if it can integrate itself with the rest of the world…If given the chance, I will let the Chinese authorities hear other Taiwanese voices rather than just those from the ruling Kuomintang.”
