英文摘要 |
The cross Strait relation has deteriorated since the later half of 2002. President Chen shuibian proclaimed the stance of one country on each side of the Strait. Later on he proposed to hold a referendum and amend the constitution during Taiwan's presidential election. All these assertions have led Beijing to conclude that Taiwan intends to promote independence. The United States, due to its goal of antiterrorism, also wants to maintain stability in the Taiwan area and thus does not want to see that Taiwan takes provocative actions against China. Therefore, Washington had kept on demanding Taipei through both public and private channels that it should restrain itself from antagonizing China before the election. Washington and Beijing have gone further to cooperate on suppressing Taiwan's movement toward independence after the election. Beijing also explicitly expressed its strong opposition to Taiwan's moving toward independence and its strategy of combination of both war and peace in the 517 Statement released after the election. President Chen's inaugural speech demonstrated that Taiwan intended to pacify the cross Strait relations and avoided military conflict. For its own interest, Taiwan also has to recover the mutual trust with the United States which had been damaged during the election. Whether these efforts can work or not will largely depend on the trust by the United States and China in Taiwan. The future security in the Taiwan Strait is also decided by these relations. |