During the "Two Sessions" held in Beijing—the First Session of 11th National People's Congress (NPC) and the First Session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Chinese top leader Hu Jintao, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), gave a speech on the cross-strait relations between mainland China and Taiwan.
Although the central topic of the presentation was communist China's objection to "Taiwan's Referendum on Joining the United Nations" and "Taiwan Independence," Hu expressed interest, under the "One China" principle, in having dialogue and negotiations with any political parties in Taiwan. Many interpreted this move as Beijing authorities offering an olive branch to both the Pan-Green and Pan-Blue Coalitions 1 in Taiwan.
Hu stated, "We are ready to have exchange, dialogue, consultation and negotiation with any political parties in Taiwan, as long as they recognize that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to one China." He added, "The negotiation will be conducted on an equal footing with completely open topics—there is nothing we can't talk about."
On March 5, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in his government work report to the NPC session that Beijing would actively promote economic exchange between both sides of the Taiwan Straits and push for the "three direct links (mail, transport and trade)" across the Straits. Hu and Wen's speeches have drawn the close attention of the Pan-Blue and Pan-Green camps.
This development made the headline of the CCP's top Party newspaper, The People's Daily. According to Taiwan's United Daily News, Hu's speech was interpreted as just a token gesture of reconciliation to the Pan-Green, along with his proposal of the "Theory of Unity" in promoting peaceful cross-strait reunification for the first time.
After Hu and Wen's speeches, the Mainland Affairs Council of the Taiwan Executive Yuan (Taiwan's Congress) criticized the Chinese communist regime of repeating the same old story, and trying to interfere with Taiwan's upcoming presidential election. However, according to Hsu Wen-bin, former national policy advisor and member of the advisory committee for the Mainland Affairs Council, Hu's speech revealed Beijing's new thinking on Taiwanese relations.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Hsieh Chang-ting responded on March 4 that, peace is good, but the DPP's stand is that it shouldn't make any promises about cross-strait negotiations.
Hsieh's response was quite gentle, however, on March 5, when a party member at a group meeting in the Legislative Yuan, the DPP legislature criticized Beijing authorities for double-dealing by pretending to hold out an olive branch while still posing a military threat.
Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou pointed out on March 5, that Hu's willingness to negotiate with any political parties, even Taiwan Independence supporters, is not a bad thing, but he added that exactly because of China's constant browbeating of Taiwan on the international stage, many people have begun to support Taiwan Independence. "This happened because the Taiwanese felt their dignity was taken away. The Chinese regime should have a clear understanding of this causal relationship," said Ma.
Legislative Committee President Wang Jin-Pyng participated in the inauguration ceremony of South Korea President Lee Myung-bak as the representative of Taiwan, but the event didn't go smoothly due to pressure from mainland China. Ma Ying-jeou said Chinese authorities suppressed a few of his efforts when he attended overseas meetings as the mayor of Taipei, which greatly angered Ma. Mailalnd authorities regularly offer such affronts as preventing the Taiwanese from hanging their flag in the international arena. Many say these gestures have deeply hurt the Taiwanese people and mainland authorities should be careful to monitor such behavior.
Director of the KMT's Chinese Affairs Department Chang Rong-kung believes Hu's speech neither touched upon the upcoming three years' anniversary of the anti-secession law nor reiterated the Jiang Zemin era doctrine of refusing to back down on Taiwan. "His tone was gentle and left room for compromise, but his standpoint is still the same," said Chang.
In addition, in his presentation Hu also mentioned that those who have had dreams of, advocated for, and conducted activities to further Taiwanese independence, would be warmly welcomed as long as they come back to the correct path of peaceful development in relations between mainland China and Taiwan.
Chen Kuide, political commentator and editor-in-chief of the online magazine Observe, thinks that Hu's speech was specifically aimed at the DPP presidential candidate Hsieh Chang-ting. "What Hu meant was that Chinese authorities still would like to negotiate with [Hsieh] even if the DPP comes to power or even if he has participated in Taiwanese independence propaganda in the past. That is to say, the authorities are offering an olive branch," Said Chen.
New York-based political commentator Meng Xuan said that to the Chinese authorities, the political dangers of the referendum are more serious than any other election, and even more important than which candidate is elected as the President of Taiwan.
On March 3, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian also said that the referendum is even more important than the presidential election, adding that once Taiwan becomes a member of the U.N., then Taiwan will be permanently in a defensible position. But on March 4 Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the session of the NPC said at a press conference that the so-called "referendum on U.N. membership" pursued by Chen Shui-bian's administration is a grave step in seeking "de jure independence" of Taiwan and would seriously harm peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits and the Asia-Pacific region.
Taiwan issue expert and former Washington reporter for the Taiwan Daily News Wang Jinghong said, "As for Beijing, they have to face so many problems this year, lots of domestic problems including popular discontent, pollution, as well as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. If Beijing takes any action on Taiwan, the Olympic Games this summer is likely to suffer a hard impact."
Under such pressure, it seems Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao have shown their willingness to make deals with the two parties [DPP and KMT] as well as with Taiwan independence activists, and they also want to negotiate with Taiwan on the basis of equality, which has become the new guiding ideology of the CCP.
Beijing experts on the Taiwan issue and members of the CPPCC have all changed from the saying "criticize Taiwan independence and condemn the referendum" to the big statement "strive for cross-Straits unity," signifying a complete turn-around. At the same time, this has opened a new door for peace talks between the Hu-Wen administration and a newly elected Taiwan president. The world is waiting to see if Beijing's new policy is sincere enough to build a peaceful relationship with Taiwan.
Note: [1] There are four major political parties forming two alliances known as Pan-Blue and Pan-Green. The Pan-Blue consists most importantly of the Kuomintang, or Chinese Nationalist Party, and its smaller offshoot the People First Party (PFP) while the Pan-Green includes the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the much smaller Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU). The Pan-Blue coalition is now holding a majority of seats in the Legislative Yuan.
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