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Cross-strait Relations
A mainland Chinese airliner prepares to land at Taipei International Airport. In August 2011, the number of direct cross-strait flights was increased from 370 to 558 per week. (Jimmy Lin)Since the ROC government relocated to Taiwan in 1949, it has exercised sovereignty only over Taiwan proper, the Penghu Islands, Kinmen, Matsu and a few smaller islands, while the mainland has been under control of the authorities in Beijing. Beginning with the acceleration of Taiwan’s democratization in the late 1980s, the government and citizens have striven to promote friendly, mutually beneficial exchanges with the mainland. As a result, many restrictions concerning economic exchanges have been lifted over the past two decades. These days, Taiwan is one of the biggest investors in mainland China, and over one million Taiwanese managerial and technical experts and their families live and work there.
Aiming to strengthen the ROC’s contributions to regional peace and stability, President Ma Ying-jeou, since taking office in 2008, has striven to cultivate closer and more amicable relations with mainland China under the principle of “putting Taiwan first for the benefit of the people.” Taipei and Beijing have since focused on issues of immediate, practical importance to both sides and put aside thorny political issues.
In June 2008, institutionalized talks between Taiwan’s semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation and the mainland’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits resumed after a nine-year hiatus. By December 2010, six rounds of negotiations had been held alternately on either side of the strait, producing 15 formal agreements as well as one understanding on opening Taiwan to mainland investment. Areas and issues covered by these pacts include direct flights, direct shipping and postal services, food safety, financial cooperation, joint crime-fighting and mutual judicial assistance, industry standards, fishery and agricultural collaboration, and protection of intellectual property rights.
Most significant among the accords is the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement concluded June 2010, which aims to normalize trade and economic relations between Taiwan and the mainland. In addition to providing mutual tariff concessions, the pact is expected to bolster opportunities for Taiwan to ink free trade agreements or pacts of a similar nature with other major trading partners.
Civil exchanges across the strait have also increased as bilateral relations warmed. According to official statistics, over 3 million mainland Chinese tourists have visited Taiwan since the two sides agreed to raise the daily quota of mainland visitors in July 2008. The lifting of pertinent restrictions has also allowed more than 2,000 mainland students to enroll in Taiwan universities beginning 2011. All of these developments underscore a change of attitude of authorities in both Taipei and Beijing that is conducive to fostering cooperation and building trust.
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