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Since the ROC government relocated to Taiwan in 1949, it has exercised sovereignty only over Taiwan proper and a few smaller islands, while the mainland has been under the control of the authorities in Beijing. During the Cold War years, the ROC and Chinese mainland governments each claimed sovereignty over both the mainland and Taiwan.
This state of affairs has changed dramatically—at least from the ROC’s point of view. Since democratization began accelerating in the late 1980s, its government and citizens have striven to promote friendly, mutually beneficial exchanges with the mainland. In response to economic liberalization in mainland China, and sharing the belief of other democratic nations that a prosperous Chinese people will make the mainland more democratic and peace-loving, the ROC government has lifted many restrictions on economic exchanges across the Taiwan Strait over the past two decades. These days, Taiwan is one of the biggest investors in mainland China, and some one million Taiwanese managerial and technical experts and their families live and work there.
Despite ever-increasing economic and cultural exchanges, tensions between the two sides have persisted in the past decade in view of Beijing’s refusal to acknowledge the ROC’s existence and renounce the use of force to resolve disagreements.
With the aim of strengthening the ROC’s contributions to regional peace and stability, it is the policy of the new administration under President Ma Ying-jeou, who took office on May 20, 2008, to cultivate closer, more amicable relations with mainland China. In June 2008, the two sides resumed talks via Taiwan’s semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and mainland China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS). At their first meeting, the SEF and ARATS negotiation teams finalized agreements on direct charter flights between cities on opposite sides of the strait and on mainland Chinese tourists’ visits to Taiwan. At the same time, the Ma administration endeavors to promote Taiwan’s dignified presence in the international community through consultations with the mainland, and has expressed interest in negotiating a cross-strait peace accord. |
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