Taipei, April 10 (CNA) While Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has depicted Taiwan-China relations as a "brotherhood" in his recent speech, Taiwanese academics and politicians have also offered their own metaphors for relations across the Taiwan Strait, which academia said would dictate the future cross-Strait development roadmap.
Wen used the term "brotherhood" to describe cross-Strait relations as early as 2008 and did the same again in the closing press conference of China's National People's Congress last month.
Frederick Chien, a senior diplomat who is leading a 39-member Taiwan delegation to the ongoing Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in the resort town Boao of China's southern Hainan province, echoed the same idea.
"Both sides (Taiwan and China) should be brothers, not enemies, " Chien told the media in Boao, where he is scheduled to meet with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping Saturday.
Meanwhile, President Ma Ying-jeou responded to Wen's comment by sidestepping the term "brotherhood" and saying that both sides of the strait "belong to one Chinese nation and are both Chinese people." As a political and cultural metaphor, brotherhood in Chinese means that both sides come from the same family, maintain close and friendly relations, will help each other and often share the same values.
Taiwan academia raised similar discussions in a recent forum on cross-Strait relations in which scholars presented different interpretations of their own.
The metaphorical interpretation of cross-strait relations is important, they agreed, because it would reveal and dictate the Taiwanese government's China policy.
Chang Ya-chung, a political scientist at National Taiwan University, agreed with the "brotherhood" description and said that "relations of brotherhood can be uneven, but must be equal." In comparison, he described China-Hong Kong relations as "father and son" and interpreted cross-strait relations in President Ma's "Chinese people theory" as "cousins."
Chang advocates a "One China, Three Constitutions" theory which calls for eventual cross-strait integration. Wen's comment, he said, was like "an opportunity of a lifetime" to promote integration as "China's interior affairs." The pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) always views cross-strait relations as relations between "friends" or "neighbors, " Chang said.
Even some of the heavyweight Taiwan independence supporters accepted the "brotherhood" theory, such as former presidential advisor Koo Kuan-min, who has voiced support for the idea and said that it would be fine if China views itself as the big brother, but then it has to look after the kid brother -- Taiwan.
Political scientist Tang Shao-cheng argued that the brotherhood theory will be difficult to carry out because no one knows who is going to be the big brother. The neighborhood theory, he added, is more practical.
Huang Guangguo, a professor at National Taiwan University, brought up an idea submitted by Chinese academia that described Taiwan and China as different halves of a planet in a political solar system, in which every planet was seen as a country.
The brotherhood theory could result in misunderstanding for foreign countries, said Gunter Schubert, a visiting research fellow of Academia Sinica's Institute of Sociology who came from the University of Turbingen, Germany.
The (brotherhood) theory suggests that it is a family matter unrelated to the outside world, Schubert said, adding that it would be better to promote integration from the stand point of "friends" so that it's easier for foreigners to understand.
The neighborhood theory basically means Taiwan and China are unrelated entities, which marks the regression of Taiwan-China relations and is exactly what the DPP wants, Chang said.
In terms of cross-strait relations, it's obvious that the most important phenomenon at present is the lack of trust between the two sides, Ho Szu-shen, a professor at Fu Jen Catholic University, observed.
"Without trust, any theory wouldn't work, " he said.
Joseph Wu, a political scientist at National Chengchi University who served during the DPP administration as chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) -- Taiwan's top China policy-making body -- and Taiwan's representative to the United States, said that regardless of theories, it's important to consider the possibility of the DPP returning to power.
American and Japanese authorities and academia have both urged the DPP to review and revise its party platform and resolution, which contains support for Taiwan independence, Wu said.
While the DPP always calls for a peaceful co-existence with China and is believed to respect all the documents and agreements signed during the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) administration once it returns to power, it's not likely to accept the "One China Principle" and the "1992 consensus, " he said. (By Chris Wang) enditem/cs