Taipei, June 27 (CNA) Scholars from Taiwan and China discussed a wide range of topics related to political, social and economic development on both sides of the Taiwan Strait in a seminar held Wednesday.
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Vice Chairman Tung Chen-yuan briefed the participants on the status of cross-strait exchanges and the Taiwan government's policy regarding cross-strait exchanges in his opening remarks at the one-day seminar, which took place at National Taiwan University (NTU).
The government has been trying to protect national interests instead of blocking cross-strait economic exchanges because the increasingly active cross-strait economy is determined by a market mechanism that should not be obstructed by government, Tung summed up.
However, Shen Jiuyuan, secretary-general of Pudong Taiwan Economic Research Center, and Liu Xiangping, a professor at Nanjing University, said Taiwan should be more open in its economic relationship with China to prevent itself from being marginalized.
The cross-strait political interaction of the last 20 years has not helped the Taiwanese people to erase their fear and distrust of China, said Georg Gesk, an assistant professor at Taiwan's Hsuan Chuang University. China's oppression of Taiwan's diplomatic and international space and its deployment of close to 1,000 missiles pointing at Taiwan led to a collective feeling of China's "animosity and unfriendliness," he added.
Gesk said the governments of Taiwan and China should make efforts to eliminate the animosity, citing the evolution of relations between France and Germany in explaining how former enemies make peace with each other.
A thesis by NTU professor Chou Chi-hsiang focused on the analysis of the second phase of constitutional reform in Taiwan and claimed that President Chen Shui-bian's road of constitutional reform has hit the wall and that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party will have to initiate negotiations with China to build up a healthy environment for presidential candidate Frank Hsieh.