New China Taiwan Hotline Has Cabinet Heads of Two Republics Talking

Summary: A new China Taiwan hotline has cabinet heads handling relations between the republics, not deputy directors or semi-official organizations, talk directly.

Mainland Affairs Council, Executive Yuan (Executive Branch), Republic of China, is located in Taipei, Taiwan, and now has a hotline with Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council in Beijing: Voice of America, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A new China Taiwan hotline allows the respective cabinet heads who are responsible for relations between the two republics to speak directly for the first time, according to announcements Dec. 30, 2015.

The new China Taiwan hotline bridges distances between the cabinet heads of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council in Taipei and of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing. The communication first comes about as the direct result of another first, the first meeting between the two leaders of China and of Taiwan since 1949. It derives from the meeting and dinner of Ma Ying-jeou, 6th President of Taiwan, and Xi Jinping, 7th President of China, in Singapore Nov. 4, 2015.

Officials expect the hotline to ease tensions.

The new hotline finds a precedent in pre-existing hotlines to connect the deputy directors of Mainland Affairs Council in Taiwan and Taiwan Affairs Office in China.

Pre-existing hotlines get their most pivotal use by semi-official organizations that assume roles as negotiators in a series of agreements in the absence of formal ties. Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson at the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, hopes that the new, higher-level hotline will advance mutual trust and facilitate mutual communications. She indicates for the new China Taiwan hotline: “We hope the two authorities will make efforts to maintain and promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations.”

China judges as equally important Taiwan’s acceptance of island and mainland as one.

Acceptance or rejection of the island as politico-economically distinct from the mainland since the civil war keeps government officials, political parties and registered voters divided politically.

Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan’s president-elect in 2008, leaves office in 2016 after a presidency that is pro-China in policies promoting direct trade and travel and intertwining economies. The Taiwan Affairs Office in China makes no mention of island presidential elections scheduled for Jan. 16, 2016, in Taiwan, perhaps because of the predicted outcome. Analysts of Taiwan’s politico-economic trends note the strong chance of Tsai Ing-wen, presidential candidate of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, becoming the island’s president in 2016.

Tsai Ing-wen opposes endorsing China’s claim to the island and mainland as one.

A perception of cultural, political and social differences prompts Tsai Ing-wen to assert the formal independence of Taiwan as a Chinese nation distinct from the mainland.

Tsai questions predicating the new China Taiwan hotline with deference by the insular Republic of China to the sovereignty of the mainland People’s Republic of China. She also refrains from any imminently permanent, radical change in the current status of Taiwan as politico-economically independent by fact if not by law from China. She stresses among priorities in the next presidency the need to stabilize relations between China and Taiwan rather than to destabilize with immediate declarations of independence.

China takes the stance that formalizing independence may be met with military force.

(left to right) Ma Ying-jeou, President of the Republic of China (Taiwan; ROC), and Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, in Singapore, Nov. 7, 2015 (Reuters/Edgar Su): Reuters World @ReutersWorld via Twitter Dec. 30, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Mainland Affairs Council: Voice of America, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mainland_Affairs_Council_from_VOA.jpg

(left to right) Ma Ying-jeou, President of the Republic of China (Taiwan; ROC), and Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, in Singapore, Nov. 7, 2015 (Reuters/Edgar Su): Reuters World‏ @ReutersWorld via Twitter Dec. 30, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/ReutersWorld/status/682152916447178752

For further information:

Bodeen, Christopher. 30 December 2015. “China, Taiwan Inaugurate Upgraded Hotline between Sides.” The Washington Post > Asia & Pacific.
Available @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-taiwan-inaugurate-upgraded-hotline-between-sides/2015/12/30/18c7d9d0-aeb7-11e5-b281-43c0b56f61fa_story.html

Botelho, Greg; Kevin Wang; and Katie Hunt. 4 November 2015. “Call Me Mister: Taiwan, China Presidents to Hold Historic Meeting.” Cable News Network > World.
Available @ http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/03/asia/taiwan-china/index.html

CCTV News. 29 December 2015. "Hotline between Chinese mainland & Taiwan administrations launched." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dweeiGMzgcA

Reuters World‏ @ReutersWorld. 30 December 2015. "China, Taiwan open first hotline in tension reducing measure." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/ReutersWorld/status/682152916447178752