Cross strait mutual trust mechanism: origins and development

• Main Authors: Shao-Shuen Hsu, 許紹軒
• Other Authors: Chong-Pin Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/m93dkt

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 國際事務與戰略研究所碩士在職專班 === 101 === As the Chinese Civil War came to an end in 1949 and both sides of the Taiwan Strait were governed by separate administrations thereafter, several military conflicts still broke out between Taiwan and China and caused high death toll during the following half century. While both sides have begun to reconcile with each other with the changing world order, their military standoff continued as a ticking time bomb that threatens regional stability at all time. The term and theory of the confidence-building measures (CBMs) originated from the West. However, the practice of this measure could be found in Chinese history. By reviewing the development and context of past confidence-building cases in Chinese and Western history, the study tried to examine the feasibility of developing a CBM between Taiwan and China as well as making the Taiping Island (Itu Aba) in the South China Sea a CBM experimental zone for Taipei and Beijing. The study also attempted to make a comparison between the conventional CBMs and a new initiative of the “military security mutual trust mechanism,”which was advocated by former Chinese president Hu Jintao in 2008, and tried to identify the definition and context of the latter, which was a relatively new proposal. The study found that Taiwan, as the weakest member in the trilateral framework between Taiwan, China and the US and the one needed the CBMs the most, often found that it was impacted too much by the international political structure that the issue was out of its control. For Beijing, the study found, there are a lot of differences between its initiative of the“military security mutual trust mechanism”and the conventional CBMs. Additionally, the“one China principle”and ending of US arms sale to Taiwan came as the most important tools and strategy for China to“prevent Taiwan independence and promote unification.” For the US, it favored persistent dialogues between both sides of the strait because the avoidance of Taipei and Beijing’s misjudgment of each other’s intention, which could inflict military conflicts, has been its top priority. However, Washington would like to be notified in advance if the dialogues touched upon the military issues as too much intimacy or hostility between the two sides does not serves its national interests. The complexity of the establishment of a CBM in the South China Sea, the study found, would be much more higher than developing a CBM between Taiwan and China, with the process would inevitably involve the other claimants of the South China Sea.