Taiwan's future: Trend unstoppable
- Source: Global Times
- [00:56 December 22 2009]
- Comments
The forward movement of cross- Straits relations appears to be irreversible now.
Keeping up the positive momentum of their last meeting in Nanjing three months ago, Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits President Chen Yunlin and Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung shook hands again Monday in Taichung city.
Since June of 2008, the two sides have held three rounds of discussions in Beijing, Taipei and Nanjing respectively. The process underscores the increasingly regular and institutionalized nature of cross-Straits dialogue.
The agenda of the fourth meeting may not be as "historical" as last time when breakthrough was made on direct mail, air and shipping services. The issues, ranging from quarantine inspection of agricultural products to avoiding double taxation, aim at further facilitating trade between the mainland and Taiwan.
Once the framework is in place, there would follow the important task of sorting out the details.
More aspects of the economic cooperation and frame agreement (ECFA) would be fleshed out during the talk.
Once dubbed as one of the four little dragons of Asia, Taiwan had created an economic miracle decades ago. Yet it has been gradually marginalized in the process of globalization. The eight-year rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its political wrangling have cost Taiwan its competitiveness, a deficiency compounded by the world economic crisis.
