The motion, passed in June, states that the upper house “welcomes the signing of various bilateral agreements between China and Taiwan ... since May 2008,” in reference to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policies.The key words that got Chinese Ambassador to Australia Zhang Junsai's (章均賽) knickers in a twist was the term 'bilateral agreements' implying, as it correctly does, equal state to state agreements between two international parties. This was too much for Zhang who said that ...
The motion also encouraged the two countries to further enhance dialogue, practical cooperation and confidence-building steps, saying that would have “a positive effect on the stability and security of the Asia-Pacific region.”
it was inappropriate for the democratic body to “comment on the question of Taiwan, an internal affair of China.”What's ours is ours. What's yours is ours. There's only one China. I couldn't agree more except that Taiwan isn't a part of the PRC and never was and Tibet and East Turkestan don't want to be.
“There is only one China in the world. Both the Mainland (sic) and China [sic] belong to the one and same China,” Zhang wrote.
His comments are further evidence that the Chinese government is still willing to issue strong condemnations on technical matters, including how Taiwan is termed alongside China. (Despite a so called warming of relations across the strait. So much for the diplomatic truce. Does Beijing think Taiwanese won't notice the cognitive dissonance between what Ma says and what Beijing does?)
Zhang compared Taiwan-China ties to the relationship between “a state or territory in Australia and the commonwealth,” adding that the Chinese government would eventually solve its “sensitive political, military and security issues” with Taiwan.Rofl. The Commonwealth? That's the new meme? Notice the UK demanding that all other commonwealth countries move towards unification? Perhaps he was thinking about the Commonwealth of Independent States (formerly known as the USSR) - that's more Beijing's style. The harder they try to justify and explain the unjustifiable and unexplainable, the deeper they fall into the hole they have dug for themselves. No big playa in the world regards Taiwan as a part of the PRC - they all just note Beijing's shrill claim that it is.
“[We will] deal with easier issues first and the thorny ones later,” he said, referring to economic and political issues, the SMH report said. “We will … look for the right time to approach and solve them step by step.”(ROC welcomes the motion despite PRC rejecting it - will this affect relations or is anything Taipei says now about sovereignty generally understood in Beijing to be an election sop by the KMT to avoid looking as weak and disloyal as they actually are to Taiwan?). Note the prioritisation of economic issues in the short term. I am moving firmly toward the conclusion that China seeks to ensnare Taiwan economically into a position of utter dependence. This makes sense considering the economic clout China recently wielded with Japan practically forcing it to abrogate its own laws and judicial processes to release a
The newspaper also quoted Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) as saying that he was delighted with the motion, adding that Taiwan would continue to “do its utmost to engage in dialogue and negotiations with Beijing.”
Chen said on Saturday that he has “three major tasks” to achieve during this trip, the main one being to promote direct sales of Taiwan’s agricultural products to China.The first and third tasks are a direct response to the DPP's success in raising fears in Taiwan that ECFA will benefit the big corporations at the expense of small sectors of the economy. China's strategy is effectively to buy votes for the KMT by buying produce from sectors that traditionally have pan-green support. It's the second task that sent chills down my spine. Why does Taiwan need to jointly access other markets? Can't it do it on its own? Isn't the logical conclusion that if it starts to conduct negotiations alongside Chinese counterparts to enter markets, other countries will come to see that as a norm and as a result decline to cooperate with Taiwanese businesses unless their market entry is coordinated by and alongside a Beijing entry?
Chen said the second task was to find more suitable ways to facilitate cross-strait trade cooperation and for Taiwan and China to jointly access other markets.
Thirdly, he said he hoped to see the ECFA benefit more people, particularly the large number of small and medium-sized enterprises and fishermen’s and farmers’ association
What happens when Taiwanese vote for a pro-Taiwan President? Will China then use ECFA and economic threats, or just 'unofficial' blocks, to force the democratically elected official to concede his or her sovereignty in formulation of Taiwan's foreign and economic policy?
Scary days indeed.
