A Preliminary Proposal for Military "Confidence-building Measures" Across the Taiwan Straits

”Confidence-building Measures (CBMs)” have long been conceptualized and was first codified in the ”Helsinki Final Act”. To date, CBMs are widely adopted in regions with latent conflicts to reduce hostility and the danger of confrontation. Notable examples include ”ASEAN” and ”Council for Security Cooperation in Asia-Pacific”, etc. These mechanisms are valuable to regional security and bilateral cooperation. Ever since the establishment of the Chinese communist regime in 1949, the two sides of the Taiwan Straits have been under separate rules. Although the ROC unilaterally ended its ”Period of National Mobilization for the Suppression of Communist Rebellion” on May 1(superscript st), 1991, thus acknowledging the fact of separate rules, there has been no reciprocal response from Mainl and China. After the outbreak of the missile cri sis in 1996, the US, with strategic considerations in mind, has been encouraging dialoglles between the two sides, which triggered a heated discllssion on military CBMs across the Straits. Although the people of the two sides belongs to the same ethnic group, fifty years of separation had estranged their political atmosphere. As a Chinese proverb goes: ”The winner the ruler, the loser the condemned”, Mainl and China has regarded itself as the central government after winning the strllggle between the Nationalists and Communists, and treated the nationalist government retreated to Taiwan as a defeated enemy. So long as mainland Chinese leadership still remains unchanged in their thinking, there will not be equal-footing talks between the two sides. Against this backdrop, the discussion of military CBMs across the Straits Should focus on practical issues, sllchas how to go along with the global trend to overcome existing restraints and how to find a creative and progressive way to go through the process of ”contact, dialoglle and negotiation”. Now the relation of both sides Of Taiwan Strait is still under tensions, resulting from a statement of ”Special St ate-to-Sate” by president Lee on July 18. Suppose this could be cool down and both sides ' relationship could come back to the situation before July 18. . Judging from the cross-strait situation, military CBMs are indispensable for prevenling conflicts stemrning from mi sunderslandings. This essay has sourced from practical experience of exisling CBMs world wide and taken into consideration the cultural symmetries and differences across the Straits. It serves as a reference by providing a timetable for the establishment of cross-strait CBMs and an assessment on several feasible options.

並列關鍵字

Military Confidence Building Measures ； Cross-Strait Confidence Building Measures ； Offcial mil-mil contacts ； Hotline ； Helsinki Final Act

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