Forget the bluster, DPP is treading softer line on ties

The 10-year policy blueprint released by Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party on Tuesday is full of contradictions, analysts say, but hints that the DPP has fine-tuned its cross-strait policy stance.

Though there were no surprises in the content of the blueprint - with three main parts dealing with cross-strait policy, domestic affairs and foreign policy - there was a change in tone, with party chairwoman Dr Tsai Ing-wen promising people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait a harmonious and stable future if she is elected president next year.

Normally, the DPP more aggressively demands that the island formally become an independent country free of its China tag.

The blueprint will provide Tsai's main policy platform as she campaigns against incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou, of the Kuomintang.

Besides promising to maintain Taiwan's economic independence by decreasing its reliance on the mainland, Tsai said the party would support the continued implementation of the Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (ECFA) - one of several deals with the mainland reached under Ma in the past year. However, she would employ 'democratic procedures' to review it if the DPP regained power.

Compared with the party's past policy papers, the blueprint uses moderate wording in describing cross-strait relations. Taipei-based political commentator Tang Hsiung-lung said this indicated the DPP was trying to avoid irritating both Beijing and Washington.

'In her presentation, Tsai recognised the significance of the ECFA vaguely, because she knows that part was her weakest point, and the trump card of President Ma,' Tang said. 'Her stance is obviously a big change from the party's original stance: the DPP once encouraged their supporters to condemn the ECFA because they believed it was created under the 'one-China' framework.'