The third round of talks between the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) (also known as "Chen-Chiang meeting"), which has commanded widespread attention, was successfully held in Nanjing recently.
The talks led to agreements on three topics involving regular flights across the Straits, financial cooperation between the Straits and a united effort to crackdown on crime and establish mutual judicial assistance, as well as a consensus on Chinese mainland investment in Taiwan. Both sides exchanged preliminary views on the contents of the planned fourth round of talks and believed that the talks achieved their intended purpose.
People on both sides of the Straits, reflecting worldwide public opinion, agree that this round of talks, which centered on the urgent need to develop cross-Straits relations, on economic issues and on the topic that people on both sides care most about; public livelihood, should take a new stride toward in "peaceful development, jointly creating a win-win situation" and therefore have an important practical significance.
This time last year, the Chinese Nationalist Party, or the Kuomintang (KMT), had just won a landslide victory in two important elections to regain power in Taiwan. After this, the Communist Party of China and the KMT seized the opportunity to implement the "common vision of peaceful development across the Taiwan Straits" reached in 2005.
Ma Ying-jeou, the newly elected leader of Taiwan, expressed the view that it is necessary to "face reality, shape the future, shelve disputes and pursue a win-win scenario." General Secretary Hu Jintao responded saying that both sides should "build mutual trust, put aside differences, seek common ground while putting aside differences and create a situation of shared benefit."
Since then, both sides have engaged in positive, benign interactions. In the past year alone, significant historic developments have taken place in cross-Straits relations. The ARATS and the SEF have resumed their institutional negotiation functions and two Chen-Chiang meetings have been held. The meetings produced six agreements including those involving weekend charter flights, Chinese mainland tourism to Taiwan, direct shipping and flights between the two sides of the Straits, direct postal services and food safety. The agreements have fostered important exchanges between the two sides and have also realized the "three direct links" long-awaited by people from both sides. Not only have such pacts shortened the emotional distance between people from both sides of the Straits, they have injected life and vitality into both sides' economic development, especially in Taiwan, which is currently enveloped by the shadow of the global financial crisis.
Take the loosening of restrictions on Chinese mainland tourists visiting Taiwan for example, since July last year, over 200,000 Chinese mainland tourists have visited Taiwan, creating a total of over 300 million USD (approximately over 10 billion NTD) of income and business opportunities in Taiwan. They have revitalized Taiwan's economy which has been severely battered by the financial crisis. Calculated using an average daily passenger flow of 3,000 people, 1.1 million Chinese mainland tourists annually will create business opportunities worth 60 billion NTD and 40,000 jobs, and at the same time will drive related industries with mutual interests to produce significant benefits.
The realizations of both cross-Straits "three direct links" and large-scale exchanges have undoubtedly alleviated the financial tsunami's impact on Taiwan. Recently, Taiwan has had a constant flow of good news: the decline in exports has slowed, the number of unemployment benefit applicants and recipients has started to drop, Taiwan's stock market has come out of its downturn, rising to the 6,000-point level; both the number of ships entering and leaving the Port of Kaohsiung and the throughput of the port have been remarkably higher than in December of last year. Thanks to the favorable influence of significant progress made in cross-Straits relations, public opinion in Taiwan regarding the performance of the Ma Ying-jeou administration has started to pick up.
The practice over the past year shows that both sides of the Straits hope to develop cross-Straits relations on the political basis of defending the "1992 Consensus" and opposing "Taiwan independence." They all have the sincerity to seize this rare historic opportunity to jointly promote the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations and to seek the greatest well-being for the whole Chinese nation, including people on both sides of the Straits. Meanwhile, the route for peaceful development and the creation of a win-win situation has been supported by mainstream public opinion on both sides of the Straits, including the opinions of the majority of Taiwanese compatriots. The international community has given high affirmation and support regarding the positive changes in cross-Straits relations.
Given the situation described above, the third "Chen-Chiang meeting" not only responds to the urgent need for further development of current cross-Straits relations, it represents the need to cope with the impacts brought about by the international financial crisis on both sides.
Just as Taiwan expected, the aim is to "pull together in times of trouble, help each other, deepen cooperation and shape the future." The positive results achieved at the third "Chen-Chiang meeting" will facilitate the full realization of "three direct links" across the Straits and will build a mechanism to jointly fight crime and provide each other with judicial assistance. This will help push cross-Straits economic relations toward the goal of normalization and will promote the healthy and orderly development of exchanges between the two sides, so as to be in line with the fundamental interests of people on both sides and the expectations of people across the Straits, and even with Chinese people all over the world.
The meeting and its results reflected the hope expressed by Premier Wen Jiabao when he talked with the Taiwan delegate Fredrick Chien at the Boao Forum; that is, to "face the future, discard past enmity, and join hands and move forward with close cooperation." The meeting is certain to produce active and positive effects on the peaceful advancement of cross-Straits relations.
By Yang Lixian, deputy secretary general of National Society of Taiwan Studies
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