Will Beijing answer Taiwanese negotiation body’s call to revive cross-strait talks?
Consultations between semi-official organisations in Taiwan and mainland China have been halted since the DPP’s rise to power on the island
Beijing is expected to ignore a Taiwanese body’s call for a resumption of cross-strait consultations with its mainland counterpart amid tensions that have worsened since the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) gained power on the island, according to observers.
Luo Wen-jia, secretary general of Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), tasked with consultation and negotiation with the mainland, said on Friday he hoped there would be a “breakthrough” this year regarding the restoration of talks with mainland China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (Arats).
Luo urged Beijing to show a “pragmatic attitude” towards the resumption of the mechanism. Under the mechanism, the two bodies hold consultations and negotiations on handling cross-strait civil and business matters.
The call comes nearly nine years after the mechanism was halted following the election of the DPP’s Tsai Ing-wen as the island’s leader.
Zhu Songling, a professor at the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Beijing Union University, said there had been no sign of a change in the mainland’s position on the issue.