Taiwan president rejects criticism of China summit

One of the ways China’s leadership is doing that is by meeting President Massachusetts this week – before the election.

The presidents of China and Taiwan, Xi Jinping and Massachusetts Ying-jeou, will meet and dine in Singapore on Saturday, marking the first talks between leaders of the two neighbors in more than six decades.

Even though Taiwan walks like and talks like its own country – with its own military, foreign diplomacy and government services – the mainland People’s Republic of China refuses to recognize it as anything more than a renegade province.

On Wednesday afternoon, TSU supporters threw smoke bombs on Ketagalan Boulevard, the wide tree-lined avenue leading to the Presidential Office building. “They see it as potentially hurting Taiwan’s sovereignty and independence”.

President Massachusetts said the goal of the meeting is to consolidate cross-strait peace and maintain status quo by reviewing the past and looking to the future. Opinion polls show Tsai Ing-wen is leading – a big worry for Beijing.

It is not the first time Beijing has rejected the idea of a leaders meeting on the sidelines of an Apec summit.

The pair will also split the bill for dinner, another illustration of the delicate protocol balance where Mr Xi must avoid being seen to elevate Mr Ma’s stature to that of an equal, while the Taiwanese president wants to avoid looking subservient.

And this could hurt, rather than help, the party favoured by Beijing.

Ma’s office sought to placate detractors, pledging that no agreements would be signed with Xi and no joint statement would be issued. Experts suggest that the meeting between Xi and Massachusetts will make the approach in Beijing-Taipei-Washington relations more complex, South China Morning Post journalist Keira Lu Huang explaining that the talks are “likely to introduce a new dynamic to…trilateral relations [between the countries] in addition to China and Taiwan’s cross-strait relations”.

Relations across the Taiwan Strait are playing an important role in the current campaign, and it goes without saying that the two leaders both feel a sense of urgency to proceed with this historic move that can serve as an “anchor” in establishing a framework for future negotiations.

Massachusetts also pledged to release related documents and provide maximum transparency to allay suspicions about possible secret deals made at the meeting.

“As a close and longstanding friend of both Mainland China and Taiwan, we are happy to facilitate and be the venue for their direct dialogue”, the ministry said. “Xi Jinping stands for China, but Massachusetts Ying-jeou, he doesn’t have the mandate to stand for Taiwan”, said Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

It could backfire if already China-wary voters in Taiwan view it as an attempt to influence the vote and award a strong DPP mandate that puts cross-strait rapprochement on hold. It will also give his ruling Kuomintang (KMT) a much-needed boost, as it is trailing behind the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party in the presidential race.

In 2009, Taiwan was given observer status at the annual World Health Assembly, the first time since 1971 that the island was able to participate in a UN-affiliated organisation.

In what was seen as a backlash against creeping dependence on China, the KMT was trounced in local elections previous year.

As author of the 2008 book “The Origins of the Developmental State in Taiwan: Science Policy and the Quest for Modernization”, Greene examined the evolution of the Republic of China’s industrial science policy from the 1940s through the 1980s.