President- elect Ma wants to focus on economy first
China-favoured winner plans to tackle political issues later
Taipei (AP) Economy f irst, politics later — if ever. That’s the mandate Taiwanese voters gave their newly re- elected president on relations with the Chinese mainland, which is bent on achieving unity with the democratic island but will have to wait for it.
Beijing favoured President Ma Ying Jeou over a challenger from a pro-independence party, and has worked with Ma to build closer economic links. But while Chinese President Hu Jintao would like to see progress in repairing the political rift between Taiwan and the mainland before he leaves office this year, Ma made clear after declaring victory on Saturday he wants to strengthen economic ties before addressing political issues.
He told reporters there is no clear timetable for beginning any political talks with the authoritarian mainland, the world’s second-biggest economy.
“With mainland relations, we will work on the economy first and politics later, work on the easier tasks first and the more difficult ones later,” Ma said after winning a second four-year term. “There is no rush to open up political dialogue. It’s not a looming issue.”
Ma Ying Jeou
That could present a challenge to the Chinese leadership, which insists that Taiwan is part of Chinese territory and sooner or later needs to come under Beijing’s control. The two sides split amid civil war in 1949.
Hu has pivoted sharply away from the intimidation and bullying that used to be a hallmark of Beijing’s policy towards the island, but his government continues to point hundreds of missiles at Taiwanese targets and maintains its longstanding threat to resort to force if Taiwan resists unification indefinitely.
Failure by Hu to produce concrete political achievements i n Taiwan could strengthen the hand of less patient Chinese l eaders emerging in the military and the government.
Ma, for his part, has ruled out even meeting Hu.
“My formal capacity is the president of the Republic of China,” he said, referring to Taiwan’s official name. “It will not be possible for me to meet with mainland leaders in another capacity. People here would not accept it.”
No Chinese leader could acknowledge Ma’s status as ROC president, because to do so would be to accept that a separate China exists alongside the People’s Republic. That violates the socalled “one-china policy,” the central canon of Beijing’s approach to Taiwan.