China Agrees to ‘Help’ Trade With Taiwan Isles

For the first time since China’s civil war ended 51 years ago, mainland China and Taiwan say they are ready to acknowledge a direct trade link--a small step, but one that many hope will eventually lead to an easing of tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing grudgingly consented to the direct link Thursday after months of ignoring a Taipei initiative to formalize local trade ties that now exist illegally between China’s Fujian province and two small islands, Matsu and Quemoy, that are controlled by Taiwan.

The first legal commerce is scheduled to begin New Year’s Day.

While Taiwan and mainland China have strong and growing trade and investment ties, these ties have always been indirect, operating mainly through Hong Kong. Political contacts are virtually nonexistent between the two, and the Taiwan Strait is considered a potential flash point--one of major concern to the United States.

Even Thursday’s announcement came with no apparent contact between the mainland and Taiwan, which Beijing considers a rebel province. At a weekly news briefing here, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue confirmed a report carried by the country’s official New China News Agency implying that Beijing would cooperate with the Taiwanese plan. That report quoted a Fujian provincial official as saying, “The mainland is willing to help.”

It went on to urge local nongovernmental organizations on both sides “to facilitate the two-way personnel and trade exchange across the strait and do everything possible to simplify related procedures.”

But there was strong evidence that Beijing wasn’t too happy about its U-turn. Rhetoric accompanying the announcement condemned Taiwan’s cross-strait policies as being out of tune with the will of the people. It also decided--at least initially--to restrict any cooperation to nongovernmental groups.

Though residents and local governments on both sides of the political divide are eager to formalize--and thus decriminalize--the trade links, Beijing wanted to exact a political price for its cooperation.

The mainland has dangled the prospect of full direct trade ties between the two as a way to press Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian to acknowledge Beijing’s so-called one-China policy. Because commercial ties already exist between the mainland and the two outer islands, Chen was able to act unilaterally on this smaller trade link.

The Taiwanese government is “trying to make it look like it can avoid recognizing the one-China principle but achieve the [minor trade] links anyway,” said Li Jiaquan, a Taiwan expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. “We can’t legitimize this. Officially, we won’t pay attention to it or cooperate with it, nor will we oppose or obstruct it.”

The backhanded nature of Beijing’s announcement drew mainly cautious responses from Taipei.

“This could be the icebreaker,” said Parris Chang, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Taiwan’s parliament and a member of Chen’s Democratic Progressive Party. “Let’s hope for the best.”

Yu-ming Shaw, a senior figure in Taiwan’s opposition Nationalist Party, questioned to what extent Beijing would follow through on its pledge to facilitate the links.

“There have been several proposed trips from our side [of dignitaries to mark the official establishment of trade ties], but Beijing has said they wouldn’t accept them,” he said.

With New Year’s Day a public holiday, Shaw said the extent of Beijing’s cooperation can’t begin to be judged until Jan. 2.

“We have to wait until something real happens,” he said.

An aide to Tsai Ing-wen, head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, said there would be no immediate comment on the development.

There has been almost no political contact between Taiwan and the mainland since Communist forces won China’s civil war, drove Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek to the island in 1949 and established their own government in Beijing.

In the late 1950s, the United States vowed to defend Quemoy and Matsu against Communist forces even though they are only a few miles from the mainland. Nearly five years ago, President Clinton dispatched a U.S. naval aircraft carrier group to the Taiwan Strait to counter Beijing’s seeming attempts to bully Taiwan.

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Times staff writer Marshall reported from Hong Kong and special correspondent Kuhn from Beijing.