Mainland experts on Taiwan studies do not expect cross-Straits
relations to drastically worsen despite major gains for the
island's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in
Saturday's "legislative" elections.
But they warned that the party's electoral victory may make
pro-independence forces on the island feel freer to influence
Taiwan's mainland policy to further strain cross-Straits ties.
Li
Jiaquan, a researcher at the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said yesterday: "The results
may temporarily cloud the relations between Taiwan and the Chinese
mainland, but no dramatic change in the basic pattern of
cross-Straits ties is expected."
Results announced late on Saturday gave the Democratic Progressive
Party 87 seats in the "parliamentary" election, more than any other
party.
The former ruling Kuomintang lost its majority in the "Legislative
Yuan" for the first time after it won just 68 seats in the new
225-member chamber.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union - the Democratic Progressive Party's
fledgling pro-independence ally - won an impressive 13 seats while
the People First Party, a Kuomintang offshoot, also enjoyed major
success, winning 46 seats compared with 20 in the old 218-seat
chamber.
One of the remaining seats went to the New Party, another KMT
splinter group.
The previously unknown My Party also won a seat, as did nine
independents.
Li
said that, though the Democratic Progressive Party's electoral
triumph makes it comfortable in the "legislature," the party still
cannot afford to act tough against Beijing by disrupting the status
quo.
"One thing is for sure - the DPP, no matter how hard it may try,
will never change the fact that there is only one China in the
world," he told China Daily.
The researcher described any trouble that may arise from the
party's win as nothing but "a storm in a teacup."
"No matter what happens, the DPP will go nowhere if it sticks to a
pro-independence stance," Li stressed.
Echoing Li's views, Fan Xizhou, director of the Taiwan Research
Institute under Xiamen
University, said it is "totally impossible for Taiwan to walk
out of the existing one-China framework" despite the electoral
result.
Fan said there was little chance of the DPP taking extreme steps
towards full independence, which could potentially have triggered a
war across the Taiwan Straits.
He
said that the pro-independence forces on the island cannot
determine the development of cross-Straits relations.
However, the professor warned against increased tension in
cross-Straits ties. He said the reduced presence of the opposition
parties in Taiwan's "parliament" may make the DPP administration
led by Chen Shui-bian more determined to reject the one-China
principle.
(China
Daily December 3, 2001)