It is of great interest that top leaders across the Taiwan Straits held their first historic summit meeting in Singapore on November 7, 2015, after the two sides separated and were ruled under different system in 1949.
We noticed the tone of the meeting when addressing both leaders as “sir/Mr. xxx” as a symbol of equal status. We also noticed, and welcome the gesture that China’s state-owned Central Television broadcasted the national flag of the Republic of China, without pixelating the screen, indicating more respect for history and reality than before.
Mr. Ma Ying-Jeou emphasized the “92 Consensus under one China principle” in his pre-summit statement, but he omitted the more important elements for Taiwan that each side “verbally states” its respective principles on “one China.” Mr. Ma reissued his stance at his immediate post-summit press conference. He said during his meeting with Mr Xi Jinping, he mentioned” the Constitution of the Republic of China” and “One China, each side ‘verbally states’ its respective principles on ‘one China’.” However, before the summit, Mr. Ma chose not mention that each side ‘verbally states’ its respective principles on ‘one China’ while emphasizing on the “one China”principle. This fact of the matter reveals the big gap for the Nationalists (Kuomintang/KMT) administration as it insists on equal terms with the mainland China, but has to compromise on reality facing the Taiwanese regime.
We have reasonable doubts about the”good-will”and “good-faith”of the Communist Party. Mr. Xi Jinping himself did not attend the post-summit press conference. Instead, his subordinate Mr. Zhang Zhijun spent over half of his time reading press statement, and answered only three questions from Xinhua News Agency, China Review Agency, and Internet Paper, in what was apparently a prearranged format. This exposes again the Communist regime’s curbing freedom of expression on world stage, thus lacking confidence in itself. Mr Zhang Zhijun left the conference in haste, refusing to answer questions from a Taiwanese journalist regarding the “One China” principle and its integral part that “each side “verbally states” its respective principles on “one China.” It is also worth noting that the Communist regime did not interpret the whole “Consensus 92” during this summit, nor did it before.
Mr Zhang Zhijun restated that his Office of Taiwan Affairs would not be involved in the Taiwan election. Before the meeting, Mr Xi Jinping bragged about “the achievements in exchange and peaceful development across the Straits over the past seven years,” which obviously was intended to underpin the Nationalists (i.e. KMT) in the upcoming general election. From our observation of the political situation in Taiwan, DPP candidate Tsai Ying-wen has ruled out the independence theme that might trigger a crisis if she wins the presidency. Therefore, there’s no fundamental differences between Ms. Tsai’s stance and that of sitting President Ma Ying-Jeou, on maintaining the status quo of the cross-Straits relationship. And she made the point clear during her recent U. S. visit, and thus has the understanding and confidence from her U.S. counterparts. Mr. Xi Jinping should have learned of this point. If Mr. Xi intends to maintain the status quo regarding the cross-Straits relationship, it is beyond our comprehension of his intention to offer a straw to the sinking KMT as the general election approaches. The only explanation seems to be that Mr. Xi has bigger ambitions than his predecessors to push cross-Straits relationship, during his tenure, in a bid to change the political landscape. In a sense, the ruling party in Taiwan would lead to different directions, either KMT or DPP. The latter would not likely to make trouble for Mr Xi Jinping by stirring up the theme of independence, yet, DPP, compared to KMT, remains an unpredictable and more challenging obstacle before Mr. Xi Jinping if he wants to change the status quo.
What caused our attention is just Mr. Xi Jinping’s this very intention revealed during his summit meeting with Mr. Ma Ying-Jeou. People should remain alert to see if the development is in the interests of the freedom, dignity and wellbeing of the people across the Straits.
Therefore, we want to emphasize the following stances on the current political situation across the Straits, and its future:
1. Any shift of political relationship across the Straits must have the agreement of the people who are the stakeholders.
2. Any change in such a political landscape that would make the people of mainland China stakeholders should be on hold until mainland China realizes its democratization. Without such a process, there’s no evidence of agreement from the people, thus no people’s will to support it.
3. Equality and dignity must be guaranteed. No big-fish-eats-small-fish. No military forces allowed.
4. Strong opposition to make Taiwan a second Hong Kong.
5. Strong opposition to exclusive manipulated operations by KMT and Communist Party, or any parties for that matter, in managing with cross-Straits relationship, and the political future for both sides of the Straits.
6. Such universal human rights as dignity, freedom, equality, and democracy shall gradually become foundations for cross-Straits exchanges, and future political relationship.