Taiwan Not Ready for Political Dialogue With Beijing

Nov. 19, 2013 6:38 p.m. ET

Taiwan former Vice President Vincent Siew talks about his meeting with China’s Xi Jinping, why Taiwan doesn’t want to delve into political talks with Beijing and how it wants U.S. help in joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Photo: Getty Images.

NEW YORK— Vincent Siew, former vice president of Taiwan, suggested Tuesday it isn’t yet time for Taiwan to start delving into political dialogue with China, saying there is still “a long way to go” in developing economic ties between Beijing and Taipei.
“I do think the approach we want to take is to somehow take care of the economic matters first, before we take care of the political ones,” Mr. Siew, who is leading a Taiwanese business delegation in the U.S., said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
In October, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Mr. Siew–who was Taiwan’s presidential envoy at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Bali, Indonesia–that Beijing is eager to move beyond economic issues and conduct political talks with Taiwan, according to a report of their closed-door meeting by China’s official Xinhua news agency.
However, Taiwan wants to “take care in addressing the simple issues before the difficult ones,” Mr. Siew said in the interview when asked about his meeting with Mr. Xi.
Taiwan separated politically from the Chinese mainland in 1949 after a civil war that brought the Communist Party to power, and the relationship has long been fraught, with Beijing claiming Taiwan as its own territory. Since Taiwan’s election in 2008 of President Ma Ying-jeou, the two sides have concentrated on improving economic ties, signing a trade pact in 2010 that lowered investment barriers and tariffs.

Taiwan’s former Vice President Vincent Siew sam yeh/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Mr. Siew, who is the chairman of the Cross-Strait (Taiwan-China) CEO Summit, said there has been considerable progress in building up the relationship over the past five years, but that much work remains on the various aspects of economic ties, including wrapping up agreements on trade in services, commodities and goods as well as a dispute-settlement mechanism.
“When we can finish this whole project…we can then institutionalize and normalize the trade relationship between Taiwan and China.”
He also referred to opinion polls in Taiwan suggesting little public support for the opening of political discussions with Beijing.
“Taiwan is a democratic society and we focus a lot on the will of the people,” he said through an interpreter. The general population in Taiwan “agrees that it is still too premature for us to deal with sensitive and political issues at this juncture.”
Mr. Siew emphasized Taiwan’s interest in multilateral as well as bilateral trade agreements and said Taiwan is looking to the U.S. and others for help in gaining entry into discussions for the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, or TPP, a free-trade pact that the U.S., Japan and other countries in Asia and Latin America are exploring.
“Taiwan aspires to join the TPP. The negotiations process takes time, but we are hopeful that we can reach an agreement that benefits all parties involved and become a full member,” Mr. Siew said.
Beijing has tried to prevent Taiwan from asserting its own international identity by blocking its entry to international institutions and opposing Taipei’s efforts to sign free-trade deals with Asian neighbors.
“It’s not only a very unfortunate situation, it’s also not a fair one,” Mr. Siew said. “We should be able to participate in all these efforts.”
A representative from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn’t respond to a request for comment.
China isn’t involved in the TPP talks, with critics see as part of an effort by Washington to seek to contain the country’s economic influence by forming stronger bonds with its neighbors. However, in May, China suggested it was considering joining the U.S.-led discussions.
Taiwan has sought to reduce its economic dependence on China, its largest trading partner which it says receives nearly 30% of its exports. In recent months it has signed free-trade agreements with Singapore and New Zealand, building on trade agreements with some Latin American countries that don’t have diplomatic ties with China.
It is also hopes to sign an investment agreement with the U.S., which used to be Taiwan’s largest trading partner but which has slipped to third after China and Japan, according to Mr. Siew, who said the visiting trade delegation was the “most influential” that Taiwan has sent to the U.S. in decades.
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