A US expert on China said
recent visits by Taiwan's opposition party leaders to the Chinese mainland have
created a hopeful and dynamic situation, but that there is still a lot of work
to be done by both sides for a long-term stability across the Taiwan Straits.
Kenneth Lieberthal, a former special assistant to the president and senior
director for Asia of the National Security Council during the Clinton
administration, said long-term stability and peace is beneficial for both the
Chinese mainland and Taiwan.
"I think it is feasible and desirable, but not in hand," he said in an
interview with Xinhua on Wednesday on the side of the three-day 2005 Fortune
Forum, which concluded Wednesday in Beijing.
Lieberthal was positive about the historic visits earlier this month by
Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) Chairmen Lien Chan, and People First Party Chairman
James CY Soong, two opposition party leaders in Taiwan.
The visits, the first in about six decades, have been welcomed by the
majority of the Chinese people on the mainland and Taiwan as they have long
aspired for peace and eventual peaceful reunification. The two sides were
separated in 1949 following a four year civil war.
"I think the visits by Lien and Soong lay the groundwork for more economic
cooperation across the straits and helped create a political environment to
enable that kind of cooperation to occur, " he said.
Lieberthal said a very clear effort is underway to move forward trade links,
as there are procedures on the mainland side to open up the agricultural market,
especially for products produced in central and southern Taiwan, and there are
consideration for new policies being adopted for Taiwan students studying and
seeking jobs on the mainland.
The mainland has offered wider access to farm produce from Taiwan by offering
zero tariff treatment to a variety of Taiwan fruits in a bid to alleviate sales
difficulty faced with Taiwan fruit growers.
Lieberthal, who made his first visit to China in 1976 and has traveled to the
mainland and Taiwan at least several times a year in recent years, said the
visits from the Taiwan politicians lay the groundwork for holding more talks in
the future to develop an agreement he proposed for long-term peace and stability
across the straits.
"Any fundamental stabilization of cross-strait relations over the long term
is good for the mainland, Taiwan, the region and the world," he said. "I think
leaders on both sides of the straits, both in Taipei and in Beijing, want to see
that occur."
