DATE=8/12/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=TAIWAN STATUS
NUMBER=5-44045
BYLINE=STEPHANIE HO
DATELINE=TAIPEI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Relations across the Taiwan Strait are the
frostiest they have been in three-years, following the
Taiwanese president's call last month for China to
treat the island as a special, but equal, state. V-O-
A's Stephanie Ho spoke with analysts and officials in
Taipei about the reasons and the timing of the
president's comments.
Text: Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui triggered the
latest round of cross-strait tensions by calling for
"special state-to-state" relations with China, which
regards the island as a breakaway province.
One of the biggest questions in all of this is why did
President Lee say what he did, if he knew it would
cause such an uproar?
Soochow University political science professor Yang
Kai-huang says one explanation is the Taiwanese
president may hope his domestically-popular comments
will help his party's candidate in March elections.
// YANG ACT //
The first is, like you say, to try to influence
the election
// END ACT //
Mr. Lee is required to step down, but his "Nationalist
Party's" presidential candidate is his current vice-
president. Professor Yang says not only does Mr. Lee
want to weaken other presidential challengers, he may
also be trying to shape the legacy of his relations
with the Mainland.
Another reason, offered by the Vice-Chairman of
Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council Lin Chong-pin, is
that President Lee wants to increase Taiwan's
visibility around the world and to gain understanding
for Taipei's view of the island's status.
// LIN ACT //
Beijing has monopolized the international
audience with its story of one-China. Beijing's
one-China is the current tense. And according
to Beijing's one-China definition, people get
the idea that we are a renegade province.
// END ACT //
Mr. Lin adds that by describing Taiwan as a separate
state, President Lee was only expressing the reality
of the situation.
// LIN ACT //
Beijing has never collected one cent of tax from
Taiwan. Neither has Beijing recruited one
single young man for military service. And of
course, Taipei has not done these things on the
mainland. Therefore, if the two are not two
states, then what are they?
// END ACT //
Analyst Andrew Yang, the Secretary-General of the
Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, takes
Taiwan's desire for worldwide attention one step
further. He says President Lee intentionally made his
comments in advance of a planned trip to Taiwan by
China's top cross-strait negotiator, Wang Daohan --
who is scheduled to visit the island in October.
// YANG ACT //
So he (Lee) wants to make his position, right
away, very clear. We do not want Wang Daohan to
come over here saying well, this is part of the
one-China trip.
// END ACT //
Mr. Yang says Taipei wants to be sure to get as close
to equal status with Beijing as possible. Although
the Chinese government has not yet cancelled Mr.
Wang's trip to Taiwan, it returned, unopened, a letter
of clarification from his Taiwanese counterpart.
Analysts say this is a signal the visit will at least
be postponed. (SIGNED)
NEB/HO/FC/RAE
12-Aug-1999 07:58 AM EDT (12-Aug-1999 1158 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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