Beijing should consider redefining 'one China'

Apart from his "Chinese Dream", President Xi Jinping would appear to have a "Taiwanese Dream", too. In his February meeting with Lien Chan, the honorary chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang, Xi expressed his wish to engage in political negotiation for peace and unity across the Taiwan Strait.

Xi's dream for Taiwan can only be accomplished through collaboration.

Ma Ying-jeou's victory in the 2008 presidential election marked a turning point in cross-strait relations. His shift towards rapprochement with mainland China brought some warmth to long-frozen ties. Since then, a range of economic agreements have been signed and millions of mainland Chinese tourists have visited the island after travel rules were eased.

These successes helped win Ma a second term last year. But despite these economic and social links, there has been no official political dialogue, testing Beijing's patience.

Beijing fully expects cross-strait relations to move to the next stage - of negotiations over the ultimate political arrangement for the two sides. But, first, Xi will have to confront the existence of the "Republic of China". If both sides cannot reach a consensus over this, to be frank, there will be no consensus on anything.

There are clues that Beijing is not yet ready to change its mind. For instance, over the escalating territorial dispute in the East China Sea, it has continued to urge Taipei to co-operate in claiming sovereignty against Tokyo. It has so far refused to respond to Taipei's peace initiative - which calls for all parties to shelve their claims on the disputed islands - and also opposed Taipei's fisheries negotiation with Tokyo.