Taipei-Beijing rapprochement fails to dispel doubts over diplomacy
A meeting of top-level leaders in Beijing yesterday gave a dramatic boost to long-soured relations across the Taiwan Strait, but some analysts remained doubtful that the two sides could resolve their political differences - especially over sovereignty.
The historic opportunity for cross-strait rapprochement was created when the mainland-friendly KMT returned to power on the island in March. During yesterday's meeting, KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung and his Communist Party counterpart, Hu Jintao, vowed to make use of the 'new situation' to improve ties.
Pundits said that while the two sides were expected to have a friendly engagement in the short-term, it was inevitable that they would eventually touch on thorny political issues, including disputes over diplomacy and sovereignty.
'Whether there will be any conflict between the two sides over diplomatic issues, and whether they can compromise on these issues, is something worth watching,' said Tung Chen-yuan, a professor at the Graduate Institute of Development Studies at National Chengchi University.
Taiwan's new president, Ma Ying-jeou, is tipped to visit Latin America this year, and it remained to be seen whether Beijing would protest against his transit stay in the United States, as it did with his predecessor, Chen Shui-bian, Dr Tung said.
Another point of interest, he noted, was to what extent Beijing would consolidate its goodwill gesture towards Taiwan: that is, whether talks would resume soon between Taipei's government-funded Straits Exchange Foundation and its mainland counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (Arats).