Despite warming relations and deepening trade ties, it is "premature" to consider a meeting between the leaders of Taiwan and China, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said in a Friday May 7 interview.
"There's a long way to go before the two sides can find something in common politically," said Ma, who has overseen a diplomatic and economic thaw with China that U.S. officials regard as of strategic significance, calming one of Asia's most acute potential flashpoints.
While Ma said he did not "exclude the possibility" of meeting the head of China's government in the future, he said the focus was on maintaining the progress being made on trade, travel, and government to government cooperation. The two sides, he said, have reached a workable "status quo." But he ruled out attending a 2011 U.S.-hosted meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to be held in Hawaii, suggested as a possible venue for a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
At the moment people do not believe that either unification or independence is a good choice. They prefer to maintain the status quo.
There are a dozen different agreements officials in Taipei and Beijing have signed since Ma took office two years ago. Those agreements also allowed direct air service between the two sides, the extradition of accused criminals and other practical steps.
In particular, Taiwanese and Chinese officials are negotiating a free-trade pact Ma hopes will expand Taiwan's already large economic presence on the mainland. Perhaps a million Taiwanese live and work in China and have invested an estimated $200 billion and relocated large portions of Taiwan's manufacturing capacity to China's lower-wage industrial enclaves.
Taiwan is not expecting -- or demanding -- international recognition anytime soon, he said. But "diplomatic isolation can be handled. Economic isolation can be fatal." (Source: Howard Schneider, Washington Post, May 7, 2010)