Analysis of the Establishment of Official Representative Offices by the SEF and ARATS

Chong-Hai Shaw

《Prospect Journal》 10期 (2013/10) Pp. 25-50

並列摘要

On October 17, 2011, Ma Ying-jeou, the President of the ROC, suggested that he should ＂promote the establishment of official representative offices to enable the two sides to tackle cross-strait affairs smoothly＂ in a series of press conferences. Almost three years ago, however, Chen Yun-lin, the President of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, had already spoken about the need to ＂set up official representative offices＂ at the first Jiang-Chen meeting. The aforementioned statements would lead one to believe that both authorities consider that an official representative office supervising the implementation of the 19 agreements signed between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait so far, as well as affairs derived from these agreements, would be effective in fulfilling the agreements reached in these meetings. In addition to implementing and supervising the affairs arising from the agreements, it is found that the focus of each side inevitably involves ＂political issues＂ when discussing the practicality of the establishment of reciprocal institutions, but both sides have shown consensus. Therefore, the author was inspired to analyze the following topics in this research project. What was the real thinking when Taipei or Beijing proposed ＂the establishment of official representative offices＂? Are there any previous patterns or examples to consult? What influence would this situation bring on the future development of cross-strait relations?

並列關鍵字

Ma Ying-jeou ； Chen Yun-lin ； the Establishment of Official Representative Office across the Taiwan Strait ； SEF (Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation) ； ARATS (Mainland China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits)