China's Dilemma: The Taiwan Issue

10. The Splash of the "Two States" Theory

210 Part IV: Conclusion© 2001 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore 10 The Splash of the “Two States” Theory After several rounds of negotiation between Li Yafei, deputy secretary of A.R.A.T.S. and his S.E.F. counterpart, Jan Jih-horng, Wang Daohan announced in late June 1999 that he would pay a return visit to Taiwan in the coming October. China hoped that there would be no restriction on the topics for discussion. To prepare for Wang’s visit, Beijing planned to hold a forum in late August on mainland China–Taiwan ties and would invite senior Taiwanese statesmen responsible for handling contacts with the mainland. The two sides agreed to a visit by Taiwanese legal experts to China in July and a visit by a Chinese agricultural delegation to Taiwan in August. Jan suggested building detention centres in Xiamen for mainland Chinese who were caught illegally entering Taiwan. Li said that China was willing to co-operate, but would not be able to take full responsibility for the problem.1 China hoped that a hotline would be set up between the two sides after Wang’s visit. The hotline would be of a “higher status” than routine communications between A.R.A.T.S. and S.E.F. China’s wish list for the Wang-Koo talks also included closer co-operation on economic issues, such as on agriculture, and listing political matters.2 Taiwan Makes a Big Splash To the surprise of many, in an interview with the German radio station Deutche Welle on 9 July 1999, Lee Teng-hui for the first time openly defined the relations between mainland China and Taiwan as “between two countries (guojia), at least a special relation between two countries”. With this definition he dumped Taiwan’s previous position of “two equal political entities”, although according to him, this was actually equal to “two countries”. He also noted that there was no need for Taiwan to declare independence again since it (R.O.C.) had been an independent country since 1912.3 ISEAS D OCUMENT DELIVER Y SERVICE . No reproduction without permission of the publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace, SINGAPORE 119614. FAX: (65)7756259; TEL: (65) 8702447; E-MAIL: publish@iseas.edu.sg 211 The Splash of the “Two States” Theory© 2001 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Hu Chih-chiang, S.E.F. Chairman Koo Chen-fu, M.A.C. Chairman Su Chi, and other high officials immediately confirmed this as the government position. Koo changed his previous position (i.e. that he had held in his meeting with Wang Daohan in October 1998) and publicly called crossstrait ties country-to-country (guojia) relations. M.A.C. was thus instructed to replace any reference to “two equal political entities” with the new notion of “two countries (guojia)” in subsequent government documents, and to drop completely the reference to “one country”.4 On 12 July, M.A.C. Chairman Su Chi claimed that from then on Taiwan would drop references to the idea of “one China”.5 Later, M.A.C., under pressure, came out with an English version of Lee’s theory of “two countries”. It was translated into “two states of one nation”, avoiding using the sensitive word “countries” (guojia in Chinese can be translated into either country, state or nation).6 On 22 July, it changed the term to “special state-to-state relations.”7 The Presidential Office and a central K.M.T. meeting disclosed that the “two states” concept was the product of a year-long study by the “Select Group on Strengthening the Sovereignty Status of the Republic of China”, which was headed by the secretary-general of the Presidential Office, Huang Kun-huei.8 Therefore, the “two states” theory was not a personal slip of the tongue, but a set government policy. Taiwan said this was a fundamental policy change and would be followed by a series of changes in policy and law, such as the State Security Law, Regulations Governing Cross-Strait Relations and the Nationality Law. Lee was expected to raise other corresponding new political, economic and social policies before leaving office.9 He was also expected to push ahead with constitutional amendments to give the notion a firm legal foundation. This was expected to take place together with a major overhaul of the constitutional and legal framework, covering all aspects of laws ranging from the definitions of state...