Bless the Strait: Draft an Agreement Establishing a Charter for All Chinese

Compared to the ever rising tensions on the Korean Peninsular, between Japan and China and in the South China Sea, Taiwan Strait is relatively quiet since May 2008.The economic integration and even political contacts between Taiwan and the PRC never ceased to deepen and widen to the extent that Beijing began pressing Taiwan to negotiate political issues and some American scholars advocated either Finlandization or even abandonment of Taiwan. Under such circumstance, Taiwan seems to be a well-behaved player in the Strait without any strategy except in passive response to Beijing’s demands and Washington’s diplo- macy. However, according to the author, this passiveness is dangerous and should be replaced by a pro-active diplomacy that advocates negotiating with Beijing a charter for all Chinese. Different from the Beijing-initiated political agreement, this Charter shall switch its focus from the cross-Strait peace to the future of the whole China and peace in the region and insist upon China’s democratization in exchange of Taiwan’s further integration with the Mainland.Such a strategy will not only strengthen Taiwan’s position in the coming political negotiations with the PRC but would find certain echo among the Chinese elite on the Mainland and scale down worries of neighboring countries vis-a?-vis the cross-Strait integration. It is also feasible because Taiwan will regard this Charter as an international treaty while Beijing could interpret it as a domestic document, the deliberate ambiguity dispensable to any political agreement be- tween two sides. It should therefore be encouraged and supported by the US and international community.