For Ma, it was a great opportunity to display to his people and to the international community, the benefit of his continued policies of maintaining better ties with the mainland. This helped him foster smoother relations with China and in turn ensuring security and prosperity of his island nation. However, Xi met Ma from a point of strength through which he displayed himself as the most powerful Chinese leader since Deng, who has the guts to meet the leader of its beleaguered “province” without fear of opposition. Also Xi’s grand gesture indirectly implied that the mainland’s reciprocal policy of better economic ties and engagement in other areas of importance with Taiwan has reduced the tensions between the two and would eventually pave the way for reunification.
Interestingly, the meeting between the two leaders seemed to be both interesting and controversial. First of all, China officially maintains “One China Principle” as the foundation stone for maintaining relationship with Taiwan since 1979. Under Deng’s initiative, the Chinese Government adopted the policy of peaceful reunification and gradually evolved the scientific concept of “one country, two systems.” The key points of this basic principle and relevant policies are: China will do its best to achieve peaceful reunification, but will not commit itself to ruling out the use of force; will actively promote people-to-people contacts and economic and cultural exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits, and start direct trade, postal, air and shipping services as soon as possible; achieve reunification through peaceful negotiations and on the premise of the One China Principle, any matter can be negotiated. After reunification, the policy of “one country, two systems” will be practiced, with the main body of China (Chinese mainland) continuing with its socialist system, and Taiwan maintaining its capitalist system for a long period of time to come
In fact, it also ensures a high degree of autonomy to Taiwan under which the Central Government will not send troops or administrative personnel to be stationed in Taiwan. It clearly underlines that Taiwan is an internal issue of China and this should be resolved only by the Chinese themselves without resorting to any external forces. The resolution further highlights that on the part of Taiwan, upholding the principle of one China means that it acknowledges the suzerainty of China over its land and people. If Taiwan denies the One China Principle, and tries to separate Taiwan from the territory of China, the premise and basis for peaceful reunification will cease to exist. As for the United States, if it promises to follow the “One China Policy”, it should earnestly implement the three communiqués between the Chinese and US governments and fulfill the series of promises it has made. It should maintain only cultural, commercial and other non-governmental relations with Taiwan; oppose “Taiwan’s independence”, “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan” and do not stand in the way of the reunification of China. Acting otherwise will destroy the external conditions necessary for the Chinese Government to strive for peaceful reunification. Against the backdrop of this historical setting, meeting between the two leaders seem to be extremely critical as it will once again raise the tempo of the pro-independence parties and lobbies in Taiwan.
Second, various pre-poll surveys suggest that Eric Chu, the presidential candidate of the KMT, would badly lose to Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP. As DPP’s philosophy is strongly rooted in independence from the mainland, so once the party wins the election for the first time, it would be a huge roadblock for China to continue the process of reunification. Indeed the KMT respects the well-known 1992 Consensus, which states that there is only “One China”, but the DPP denies the existence of such a consensus. The DPP opposes Ma’s policies adopted over the years on the ground that they were beneficial only for some sections of people. Many in Taiwan, including the DPP, strongly advocate that the current administration in Taiwan is deliberately promoting and adopting policies which are fast leading the island towards the mainland. As about the recent Xi-Ma summit, the DPP presidential hopeful Tsai Ing-wen outrightly condemned it by stating that Ma did not raise the issue of freedom and democracy of Taiwan.
Despite the negative vibes, the Xi-Ma meeting can be treated as a signal for a new era in China-Taiwan relations. For the last two years, China has been pursuing an assertive policy in both the East and South China seas. As many of her neighbours continuously approached the US, China in turn launched a series of new initiatives to counter them. Xi has already brought “One Belt and One Road” initiative to build deeper economic and trade relations with Southeast and Central Asian nations. Beijing has also toned down the tensions with Tokyo by meeting at a trilateral summit with South Korea and Japan at the end of October. Even Xi has demonstrated a rare socialist camaraderie by visiting Vietnam to ease out simmering tensions between the two neighbours. These all have taken Xi to finally set aside the historic and decades-old shibboleths to shake hands with Ma in Singapore. Therefore, Xi’s overture to Ma can be viewed as a broader diplomatic strategy to engage and assuage all the neighbours about China’s long commitment to “peaceful rise” through better economic ties in the years to come.
Ma must be credited for initiating the dialogue with the leadership of the mainland which he has been trying since 2008. Unlike Taiwanese leaders like lee Teng-hui, Ma has tirelessly worked hard to improve the cross-Strait relations and has de-escalated growing tensions over the years. Thus this summit has obviously set a precedent for future. It would be a huge responsibility for the incoming Taiwanese President (hopefully Tsai) to take it forward and continue the engagement instead of fighting the world’s second biggest economy and a nuclear superpower.
Despite some occasional ups and downs over the years, both economic and political relations have grown gradually between China and Taiwan. It is true that both sides set aside the issue of “independence” apart, except making it high on their domestic political discourse, mainly by some parties in Taiwan. For China, the yardstick is “One China Policy” devised by legendary Deng Xiaoping. Against the background of the growing generations identifying themselves as Taiwanese rather than Chinese, relations between a likely pro-independence probable President in Taiwan and Xi, a revolutionary leader who aspires to complete the mission impossible (reunification), would be worth watching how the twins survive.
(The writer is an independent political analyst based in Delhi)