Dr. Su Chi, former chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), sees the issue over amendments to the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People in the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (or the "Cross-Strait Act") as a touchstone to ascertain whether the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) wants "extremist (Taiwan) independence" or "direct transport links (between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland)." In a report delivered at a weekly meeting of the Central Standing Committee of the Kuomintang on October 23, Dr. Su pointed out: The ruling party opts for the former if the MAC-proposed amendments to the Cross-Strait Act pass the Legislative Yuan as they are, but adopts the latter if proposals to open the links are, with its support, incorporated in the revision. 

The proposals, introduced by the opposition Kuomintang and People First Party (PFP), were scheduled to be reviewed, along with the MAC amendments to the Cross-Strait Act, by the Legislative Yuan during the last week of October.

The MAC or DPP version does not make any changes to the articles concerning the direct transport links but stipulates tightening control over private exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, said Dr. Su, who is now convener of the National Security Division at the National Policy Foundation, a Kuomintang think-tank. President Chen Shui-bian has recurrently promised the people of Taiwan direct air and shipping service across the Strait, one of what are popularly called the three links (san tong), the other two being those of postal service and trade. Taiwan's faltering economy is in desperate need of direct access to China’s resources and markets for an early recovery.

In an interview with a Taipei newspaper on October 16, Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen offered to redefine the air and shipping links as a "cross-Strait," rather than "domestic," affair of “a country.” Apparently caught unawares by Beijing's new move, the DPP government has been forced to adopt a delaying tactic, with President Chen's top aides voicing only a cautious welcome to the proposed redefinition. The Chen administration regards the "three links" as an "international" or "state-to-state" issue. 

"We have no way of knowing in advance how the DPP government will respond (to Beijing's overture)," Dr. Su said. He pointed out: "How it will act on the amendments (to the Cross-Strait Act) can just be seen as a touchstone to ascertain whether it wants 'extremist independence' or 'direct transport links.’ If it continues to adhere to its policy of ‘more restrictions and less relaxation’ and allows no revision of the section in the Cross-Strait Act in relation to direct air and shipping service, we can safely say the DPP is obviously playing the same old tune of 'moving toward extremist independence while talking about the transport links at the same time.’”

This obvious procrastination on the part of the DPP reflects not only a rigid and obscurant way of thinking on the part of the authorities concerned but tells the whole story of what is wrong with President Chen's Mainland China policy. His bankrupt China policy is one of the main sources of Taiwan's political and economic woes. As a matter of fact, what is wrong politically and economically with Taiwan now can be diagnosed as a case of schizophrenia, a mental disorder of split personality affecting the DPP administration. The schizophrenic or split-personality government, which says one thing and does the other, is sparing no efforts to promote its 'extremist independence' policy on the one hand, while trying what it can to appear to follow a centrist line on the other. The people of Taiwan simply are at a loss what to follow, losing faith in the government as well as confidence in the future.
The "extremist independence" policy manifests itself in the question of "unification versus independence" and the issue of "mainlanders versus islanders.” Migrants to Taiwan from China after 1945 and their children, most of them born on the island, are commonly referred to as mainlanders. The islanders include the aborigines and the same Han Chinese who were on Taiwan before 1945 and their offspring. While in power, the Kuomintang endeavored to maintain the status quo in cross-Strait relations and followed a melting pot policy vis-à-vis the “mainlanders versus islanders” issue. The DPP is moving toward "extremist independence," thereby affecting the triangular relationship among Washington, Beijing and Taipei, while ruining in the name of “indigenization” the social harmony in Taiwan achieved over the last five decades. “Indigenization” is Taiwanization or de-sinicization. 

The DPP government is trying to appear to follow the centrist line to win support of the majority of voters who are concerned about the economic losses the absence of the direct transport links has caused. That is why President Chen would touch upon the issue of "three links" once in a while to placate these voters. The problem is that "extremist independence" and "direct transport links" are two policies diametrically opposed to each other. If the government adopts the former, the latter has to be scrapped; and vice versa. To reconcile the contradiction, the government has been compelled to “say one thing and do the other”; i.e. it tries to appear to keep its promise on the “three links" but refuses to take action to forge them. In fact, what it wants is: Not to open the “three rinks,” if possible; to delay their establishment as long as possible; and/or to forge the false “three links,” if forced to act. President Chen has talked about the “three links" on many occasions, even making remarks such as “San tong is the step we must take." Every one of his remarks on the “three links,” however, has been followed immediately by an official pronouncement of various preconditions that would make it impossible to set them up. 

In the revised Cross-Strait Act proposed by the MAC, the DPP government has erected every possible barrier to normal exchanges between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China. One measure it has taken to tighten control is to allow only an average of one mainlander per day to come to Taiwan for a visit. Another is to force retired servicemen and other public employees who decide to reside permanently on the Chinese mainland to collect their pensions in lump sum. Still another is to ban direct air and shipping service. The MAC has also tried by revising the Cross-Strait Act to make joint academic seminars illegal. All these, and others, have enabled the administration to build a "great wall in the Taiwan Strait."

The urgent task facing the Kuomintang and the PFP is to work together to end the current Taipei-Beijing impasse, achieve a national unity of purpose and improve cross-Strait economic and trade exchanges for the benefit of all the people of Taiwan. 

.....the full text in chinese