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WIKILEAKS: China using ECFA to push unification

Following repeated pledges by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) that there would be no political ramifications to the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China, US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show that Beijing intends to use deepening economic relations with Taiwan as a means to start political negotiations.

In a cable dated Jan. 6 last year from the US embassy in Beijing, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Vice Secretary-General Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光), who had just concluded the fourth round of ECFA talks with the Straits Exchange Foundation in Taichung, said during a meeting with the US acting deputy chief of mission, Robert Goldberg, on Dec. 29, 2009, that deepening economic relations would “inevitably lead to more complicated political issues.”

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Leaked cables cast doubt on president’s WHA claims

Leaked US cables cast doubt on statements made by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration that Taiwan’s presence at the World Health Assembly (WHA) was a result of direct communication with the WHO and that Taiwan’s designation as “Chinese Taipei” was acceptable and did not infringe on Taiwanese sovereignty.

Instead, the cables released by WikiLeaks suggest Beijing’s heavy involvement in the matter, with its insistence that Taiwan’s international participation be based on the “one China” principle.

For three consecutive years since 2009, Taiwan has taken part in the annual WHA meeting as an observer under the name “Chinese Taipei.” While Ma’s government has hailed the participation in the WHA as a major diplomatic achievement, it has been clouded by accusations that it has eroded Taiwan’s sovereignty.

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Newsflash


Bruce Jacobs, a professor at Monash University in Australia, talks at a symposium held at the legislature in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times

Taiwan should focus on its colonial history and the issue of de-colonization, rather than the argument over independence and unification, an Australian academic told a symposium yesterday.

Bruce Jacobs, a professor at Monash University in Australia, discussed the democratization of Taiwan at a symposium held at the legislature and organized by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP Legislator Mark Chen (陳唐山), the Institute of National Defense and Strategy Research and the Association of Taiwan University Professors.