Beijing is expected to ignore the latest call to restore talks between a Taiwanese body for cross-strait consultations and its mainland counterpart amid tensions that have worsened since the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) rose to power on the island, according to observers.
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Luo Wen-jia, secretary general of Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), tasked with consultation and negotiation with the mainland, said on Friday he hoped there would be a “breakthrough” this year regarding the restoration of talks with mainland China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (Arats).
The two semi-official bodies serve as a supplement to Taipei and Beijing’s official communication channels as the two sides do not officially recognise each other. They both act with strong official endorsement.
Luo urged Beijing to show a “pragmatic attitude” towards the resumption of the mechanism. Under the mechanism, the two bodies hold consultations and negotiations on handling cross-strait civil and business matters.
The call came nearly nine years after the mechanism was halted following the election of Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP as the island’s leader in 2016.
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Zhu Songling, a professor at the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Beijing Union University, said there had been no sign of a change in the mainland’s position on the issue.