China and Taiwan have announced that President Xi and President Ma will meet in Singapore on Saturday, November 7th. This will be the first cross-Strait presidential meeting in six decades.
Three quick thoughts:
1. The timing of Xi and Ma’s meeting is suspect. If the People’s Republic of China wanted to improve relations with Taiwan in a consequential way, it could have had official contact with Taiwan years ago. To warm relations, China should have frozen its program of military coercion against Taiwan and stopped its policy of isolating Taiwan by blocking its participation in regional and international forums.
Taiwan’s ruling Nationalist Kuomintang Party (KMT) chairman and presidential candidate Eric Chu (4th L), Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou (3rd R) and party officials raise hands at a party congress in Taipei, Taiwan, October 17, 2015. Reuters.
Instead, this meeting is a clear attempt to provide a lifeline to Ma’s Kuomintang (KMT) Party, which is likely to lose the upcoming presidential elections.
2. However, the meeting will set a precedent for further China-Taiwan engagement, providing an opening for a new US approach to cross-Strait diplomacy. Washington must advocate for official talks between Beijing and Taipei going forward, no matter who occupies the presidency on the democratic island.
The US has an interest in Beijing normalizing its relations with Taipei using official and high-level channels. Normalized cross-Strait diplomacy will increase stability in the relationship, and therefore the security situation in the Asia-Pacific.
3. The US should also use this opening to normalize its own diplomacy with Taiwan. After this meeting, President Xi will have met with the Taiwanese president, while the US still barely allows senior Taiwanese officials to enter the United States. This is a Cold War legacy that serves no purpose.
Washington should use all of its tools of statecraft to build its relationship with Taiwan, given the importance of its geostrategic location and its status as a democratic, capitalist friend. High-level diplomatic engagement, including between presidents, would improve strategic coordination, remove obstacles to better trade relations, and help end Taiwan’s isolation.
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