Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-19
By: Lo Yin-chung and Staff Reporter

If Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) passes a proposal to freeze its platform pursuing Taiwan’s independence, it will be a step forward in its relations with Beijing, Chinese scholars said.

The DPP has included a proposal to freeze the pro-independence platform on the agenda of its national congress in Taoyuan on Sept. 19, after the issue sparked a debate during last year’s party congress.

Liu Guoshen, director of the Taiwan Research Institute of China’s Xiamen University, said that if the proposal were passed by the DPP under chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen, who is running for president in the 2016 elections, it would reduce obstacles hindering the party’s relations with the Communist Party of China (CPC).

According to Liu, the DPP does not understand Beijing’s way of thinking and is unable to end the stalemate in its relations with the CPC. Beijing would offer a formal positive response were the DPP willing to freeze its pro-independence platform, which would be a landmark move, Liu said. If the DPP chooses to do nothing, however, and plans to get away with simply seeking to maintain the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, Beijing may come under pressure at home to discontinue negotiations with Taiwanese officials and semi-official agencies, Liu added.     [FULL  STORY]