Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian's three-stage plan for
cross-Straits ties was Thursday condemned as another "empty
promise" and a "gimmick" to get votes.
Mainland experts on Taiwan studies urged Chen to demonstrate his
sincerity towards the mainland through action rather than just
words.
Their comments came after Chen said on Wednesday that he has a
three-phase project to achieve the three direct links --trade,
transport and postal services -- between Taiwan and the
mainland.
The leader reportedly told local media that the first stage is
preparation for transport links and that negotiations will be
conducted in the second stage.
"In the final stage, both sides will finalize all negotiations
on the direct-links issue and begin to carry out the plan step by
step. And that time, I believe, will come before the end of next
year," he said.
Beijing's top government body in charge of cross-Straits
relations, the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, Thursday
refused to comment on Chen's remarks.
Professor Fan Xizhou, of Xiamen University's
Institute of Taiwan Research in East China's Fujian Province, said
there is "nothing new or substantial" in Chen's proposals.
"As he has done time and again over the past three years, Chen
is just staging another political show and lacks even the minimum
sincerity needed to develop cross-Straits ties," he said.
The professor stressed that Chen's so-called three-stage plan
would prove to be a mission impossible because Chen himself
deliberately set a major hurdle to the realization of the three
direct links.
In an earlier interview with the Asian Wall Street Journal, Chen
said he will never agree to push ahead with the three links under
the precondition of the one-China policy, which states that both
Taiwan and the mainland are part of China.
Taipei wants to define cross-Straits transport links as
"international routes" but Beijing insists the links should be
regarded as the "internal affairs of a single country."
Fan said: "Chen's contradictory moves and remarks clearly
suggest that he will not take any practical steps to open up the
three direct links."
Chen has so far failed to take any concrete move to lift
Taipei's decades-old ban on the three links, although he publicly
hailed the opening of the links as "a road we must take" as early
as May 9 last year.
Li Jiaquan, a senior researcher with the Institute of Taiwan
Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, described
Chen's new overture as a gambit aimed at winning votes in the
"presidential" elections next year.
Chen has to engage in empty talk to paint a false picture of
better cross-Straits relations in the future because of his failure
to improve bilateral ties during his time in office, Li said.
On the other hand, Chen's posturing is an attempt to ease
mounting pressure on his pro-independence Democratic Progressive
Party in the upcoming elections, given the close alliance between
the two pro-reunification opposition parties, the Kuomintang and
the People First Party.
Chen has refused to accept the one-China policy since he took
power in May 2000 and even advocated "one country on each side" in
August last year, triggering new tension in cross-Straits
relations.
He has been lagging behind his potential rivals -- Lien Chan of
the Kuomintang and James Soong of the People First Party -- in
opinion polls, which experts say undermines his hopes for
re-election next year.
(China Daily August 15, 2003)