Taiwan-China Relations: Expanding Private and Commercial Exchanges

As introduced by the Taiwan Yearbook 2007:

Expanding Private and Commercial Exchanges

The number of visits made by Taiwan's citizens to China (including Hong Kong and Macau) skyrocketed from 437,000 in 1988 to 4.1 million in 2005. Over the same period, Taiwanese citizens made a total of 41.3 million visits to China, while Chinese citizens made 1.75 million visits to Taiwan.

To facilitate visits by Chinese tourists to Taiwan, the government has authorized the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association, which began operations in October 2006, to negotiate technical issues with its Chinese counterpart, the Cross-Strait Tourism Association.

The government also increased, from 30 to 50 per person, the number of allowable annual visits to Taiwan by Chinese businesspeople at the invitation of three categories of enterprises: overseas Taiwanese companies, foreign companies' Taiwan branch operations, and Taiwanese companies with annual revenues of more than NT$30 million (US$900,000).

On the economic front, China (including Hong Kong and Macau) has become Taiwan's largest trade partner, with total two-way trade amounting to US$116.14 billion in 2006. It has also become Taiwanese companies' most important destination for investment abroad. Conservative estimates put cumulative investment in China at over US$100 billion, while some analysts cite much higher figures.

Over one million Taiwanese businesspeople, managers, and technical experts and their family members now live and work in China, and in recent years, well over 60 percent of all high-tech exports from China have been manufactured by Taiwanese companies.

There is a broad consensus in Taiwan on the desirability of opening up direct transportation, postal, and commercial exchange mechanisms -- known as the "three links" -- with China. Doing so has been problematic, however, in view of China's refusal to negotiate with Taiwan's government agencies and certain quasi-official organizations.

Mini Three Links

As an initial move toward opening the three links, and in order to foster neighborly relations, the government of Taiwan unilaterally implemented a "mini-three-links" scheme on January 1, 2001. Regulations were revised to permit the direct transport of people and goods between Taiwan's Kinmen and Matsu islands (both located a short distance off China's coast) and ports in China's Fujian Province. The Chinese authorities have informally consented to this arrangement without entering into written agreements.

At present, the transportation category of the mini-three-links includes only seaborne transportation via Taiwan-registered passenger and cargo ships between Kinmen and Fujian Province's Xiamen and Quanzhou cities, and between Matsu and Fujian's Fuzhou City. As of November 2006, 13,400 voyages of passenger and cargo ships, involving more than 1.84 million person-trips and trade volume of more than US$40 million, had been made between Kinmen/Matsu and China.

Charter Flights and Chinese Tourists

Although, currently, there are no regularly scheduled flights between Taiwan and China, in recent years progress has been made in arranging direct charter flights. The 2005 Lunar New Year holidays witnessed the first direct passenger charter flights between Taiwan and China. Between January 29 and February 20, a dozen air carriers based in both Taiwan and China provided 48 flights connecting Taipei and Kaohsiung with Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. The first direct cargo charter flights from Taiwan took off in July 2006, and the first direct ambulance flight from China to Taiwan occurred in September 2006.

It is anticipated that, in the near future, direct daily flights will be launched in conjunction with an agreement to permit Chinese tourists to come directly from China. Notwithstanding concerns about national security, most Taiwanese are confident that this arrangement will enable Chinese visitors to gain a firsthand appreciation of Taiwan's free way of life, while also stimulating its economy.

Ongoing Problems

Taiwan has been one of the most powerful engines pushing economic development and eradication of poverty in China. It is ironic, then, that Beijing has utilized its revenues to build a war machine whose main purpose, according to analysts, is to intimidate Taiwan into "peaceful" unification with China or, failing that, to win a decisive victory in a war of annexation against Taiwan. Its military spending has jumped by double digits annually for the past decade and a half, with emphasis on creating a blue-water navy able to control the seas surrounding Taiwan, and on expanding its nuclear deterrent.

At the very least, war would interrupt shipping in the Taiwan Strait -- the lifeline of Northeast Asia -- and most trade between East Asia and the rest of the world for an extended period. More likely, it would result in destruction on a vast scale in Taiwan, China, and perhaps other nations as well.

Hence, Beijing's insistence that its sovereignty dispute with the Taiwanese government is a purely internal affair that does not concern other countries is incredible. There is too much at stake for other nations to continue ignoring the growing danger of a conflict that would seriously damage their national interests.

Solutions

The only "solution" offered by Beijing to settle the sovereignty dispute is for Taiwan to surrender -- to agree to become a "special administrative region" of the PRC under the "one country, two systems" formula it has applied to Hong Kong and Macau. Opinion polls have demonstrated that almost no one in Taiwan can accept that solution.

Beijing has broken its promise not to interfere in Hong Kong's political affairs for 50 years, rejecting the Hong Kong people's demand to directly elect their "chief executive" and all legislators.

The most pressing need of the people of both Taiwan and China is for Beijing to embrace democracy, engage in direct, friendly talks with Taiwan's democratically elected leaders, and renounce the use of force. There is little hope of this happening, however, unless members of the international community recognize that it is in their interest to push Beijing in that direction.

The best demonstration of their resolve to promote peace in East Asia is to support Taiwan's application for membership in the United Nations and its affiliated organizations. Once Beijing realizes that it can no longer hope to persuade the world that "the Taiwan question" is just China's internal affair, warmer and closer relations across the Taiwan Strait will naturally follow.