Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-21
By: Tang Shao-cheng

A consensus on cross-strait issues between the leaders of China and the United States is

The PRC flag is raised at the military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing, Sept. 3. The PRC was founded in 1949, four years after the end of the war. (Photo/Xinhua)

far from certain during Xi Jinping’s state visit to the US from Sept. 22, but recent moves by Beijing have signaled possible changes to the development of ties across the Taiwan Strait.

A public security unit in Guangdong province recently sent a document directly to the Yencheng police precinct in Taiwan’s southern municipality of Kaohsiung, instructing the latter to offer support on certain cases. A Chinese travel authority also made a direct request to Taiwanese travel agencies to tell them to stop showing videos or chat shows on tour buses that touch on ideology, religious activities or anti-communist propaganda. Beijing also announced its decision to scrap Taiwan Compatriot permits and the issuing of travel ID cards to Taiwanese residents without conducting any prior negotiations with Taipei. More recently, Beijing declined to make concessions at the fifth meeting between banking supervisory commissions of both sides and during the negotiations on the fifth freedom right for Taiwan as a transit stop for mainland travelers.

The above actions indicate that Beijing will no longer use the Straits Exchange Foundation and its mainland counterpart organization, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, as a negotiating platform for certain affairs and will instead allow individual units under the central government to reach out directly. This suggests that Beijing no longer attaches great importance to Taiwan’s elected government.