Want China Times
Editorial
Date: 2015-09-22

Momentum in the development of relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait has ceased in the wake of last year’s student-led Sunflower Movement in Taiwan that galvanized local opposition to closer ties with China, with none of the cross-strait agreements on trade in services and in goods, the opening of reciprocal representative offices, or the planned oversight act for cross-strait agreements moving forward.

This is unlikely to change as Taiwan enters election season and we will have to wait at least until next May, when the country’s new president takes office, to see what direction relations with Beijing are likely to take.

But though no politician with any sense would want to touch them, there are major issues related to the cross-strait affairs which really should be addressed now and it would be welcome, if naively optimistic, to think that bipartisan efforts might be made to do so.

First, circumventing Taiwan’s mediating authorities on cross-strait affairs, the public security authorities of China’s Guangdong province last week sent an official notice directly to the Kaohsiung City Police Department’s Yancheng Precinct, “giving instructions” regarding an ongoing criminal case, a significant breach of the unofficial protocol.     [FULL  STORY]