Introduction
For more than five decades, cross-strait relations between Taiwan and China have
evolved from military confrontation to relatively peaceful standoff. In November
1987, the Republic of China on Taiwan, out of humanitarian concerns and in response
to the wishes of the general public, eased restrictions on civilian travel to China
for family visits. Since then, subsequent liberalization and deregulation measures
have been taken to relax restrictions step-by-step, thus leading to structural changes
in cross-strait relations.
Since the spring of 2005, cross-strait relations have
appeared to be in a less critical condition. Opportunities for improving cross-strait
relations have surfaced due to some positive interactions across the Strait, including
the smooth implementation of the Lunar New Year charter flights for Taiwanese businessmen
in China, and China’s designation of Vice-Chairman Sun Yafu and Deputy Secretary-General
Li Yafei of the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) to attend
the memorial services of the late Chairman Koo Chen-fu of theStraits Exchange Foundation
on behalf of ATATS Chairman Wang Daohan. Despite these positive developments, China
enacted the “anti-separation law” (the so-called anti-secession law) in March 2005.
This law is intended to resolve the Taiwan issue through non-peaceful means and
unilaterally change the status quo spirit of democracy but also undermined regional
security. As a result, China has inflicted strong resentment from the Taiwanese
people and received severe international condemnation.
In the long-term, peace and stability will remain the basis of the Taiwanese
government’s cross-strait policy. We insist that under the principles of democracy,
freedom, and peace, both sides of the Strait should resolve their differences through
dialogues. We hope to jointly address the cross-strait issues with other major countries.
Taiwan will continue to fully perform its function in playing the role of maintaining
stability in the Asia-Pacific region.
Establishing the Mainland Affairs Council
Frequent contacts between private sectors across the Strait have led to the increase
in postal and telecommunication exchanges, and the volume of re-export trade between
the two sides of the Strait. With such a trend, issues emerging from the preceding
situation became increasingly multifaceted and complex. It is against this background
that the Executive Yuan established the “Inter-agency Mainland Affairs Committee”
in August 1988, as a task force to coordinate policy matters related to China. A
year later, the workload and the complexity of issues soon exceeded the capacity
of the Committee and its limited part-time staff. In view of this, in April 1990,
the government invited academics, specialists, public representatives, as well as
media executives, to jointly consult on establishing a designated agency to strengthen
China policy-making and to enhance policy implementation efficiency. The “Organization
Act for the Mainland Affairs Council” was subsequently drafted and passed by the
Legislative Yuan on January 18, 1991. The promulgation of the “Mainland Affairs
Council” (hereinafter “MAC”)- An authorized agency directly under the Executive
Yuan that is responsible for handling China affairs.