Demining is a sign that fear of Chinese invasion is at last ebbing, writes CLIFFORD COONANin Kinmen, Taiwan
A SHUDDERING explosion is an odd way of illustrating closer relations between self-ruled Taiwan and China, but clearing landmines from the beaches of Kinmen, a few hundred metres from the mainland, is a powerful symbol of how ties are getting ever closer.
Meanwhile, in Taipei zoo, pandas Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, probably the two most politicised animals in the world, happily munch on bamboo as Taiwanese flock to marvel at their antics. China gifted the two bears to Taiwan as a symbol of warmer relations.
Getting to Taiwan from Beijing used to involve a tedious stopover in Hong Kong, but now there are dozens of direct flights, and mainland tourists are much in evidence in the National Museum, home to most of the treasures of the Forbidden City, which Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang took with them when fleeing to the island in 1949 after they lost the civil war to Mao Zedong’s Communists.
The demining process on Kinmen’s beaches is a sign that fear of invasion by China in this island of 23 million is ebbing.
Kinmen has many tunnels, and in the central command area underground, a painting to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Guningtou battle when the Chinese Communists invaded. This spot is just 8km from the mainland, and between 1954 and 1978 there was constant bombardment of the area by the mainlanders, who rained down two million shells on the island, 480,000 of them in the first two days of the bombing.
Some 30,000 artillery shells fell in 30 minutes. A local craftsman, Tseng-dong Wu, has developed a business making high-precision cooking knives from the shell casings that litter the island. The scale of the assault makes it clear why the Taiwanese are so worried about the hundreds of missiles that remain pointed towards Taiwan.
Beijing has always threatened to use force to bring the self-governed island under mainland control if it declared formal independence. The US has promised to intervene if China attacks, and Washington is watching developments in the Strait closely.
To prepare for what has looked like an inevitable follow-up invasion, the Taiwanese laid thousands of mines, mostly anti-personnel landmines, and installed networks of spikes on the beaches to stop landing craft. But the growing thaw across the Strait, efforts to boost the tourism potential of the island and pledges to meet international anti-landmine agreements mean the area is being demined.
“We won’t be putting these mines back. Our concern now is demining and the area’s development needs. All of the fields will be cleared 100 per cent by 2013 and we are planting trees, which act as a natural obstacle,” said Lieut General Lu Xiao-rong.
President Ma Ying-jeou, whose KMT party has been in office for a year now, believes his efforts to improve ties with China have helped bring peace to the region.
Relations between China and Taiwan were strained under his predecessor Chen Shui-bian, who had a firmly pro-independence stance, much to the irritation of Beijing.
Mr Ma has made a top priority of improving ties with China. “In one year, we have transformed the Strait from a dangerous flashpoint to a conduit of peace and prosperity. We have a diplomatic truce with the mainland in the international arena and shelved 60 years of military conflict,” he said at a briefing for foreign journalists in the presidential palace.
At the news conference, the Harvard-educated leader regularly came down from the podium to listen to journalists’ questions close-up.
His open, engaging manner has done much to break down the lingering authoritarian image of the KMT party.
The KMT ran Taiwan effectively as a dictatorship until 1987 when martial law was lifted. Chen Shui-bian’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was elected in 2000, and the KMT found themselves out of power for the first time since 1949.
Under Mr Ma’s stewardship, Beijing and Taipei have signed nine agreements on economic co-operation, including deals on direct flights and other trade deals. Taiwan has even been given tacit approval by Beijing to take part in international bodies such as the World Health Organisation.
There is also discussion again of the “One Country, Two Systems” model, which would allow Taiwan to remain democratic as part of the People’s Republic, similar to the situation in Hong Kong.
However, the opposition believes Mr Ma’s policies are endangering the island’s sovereignty, and over half a million people demonstrated last weekend on Taipei’s streets against the growing rapprochement across the Strait.
In Taipei zoo, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, whose names said together mean “reunion” in Chinese and who have to count as the world’s cuddliest-looking ambassadors, are blissfully unaware of their weighty diplomatic responsibilities.
So too are visitors to the zoo.
“They are very cute. We’re very happy that they’re here,” said Wang Qian-yong, from Taipei.
“I don’t really think about the political aspect.”
Pandas are China’s national symbol, and Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan have serious diplomatic muscle.
Beijing has a long history of using pandas in international relations, and for its part Taiwan has spared no expense in ensuring the comfort of the two four-year-olds, whose home was destroyed in the Sichuan earthquake in May.
Up to 20,000 visitors a day come to see the pair at weekends. Their enclosure cost nearly €7 million, while a staff of 35 zookeepers plus a team of volunteers looks after them in their 765 sq m garden, complete with a playground, behind 4cm-thick soundproofed glass.
“The strengthened glass is for safety reasons,” said Jason Ching, a research officer at the zoo. He is speaking beneath a portrait of Chiang Kai-shek, whose image has been restored to many public buildings since the KMT were returned to power. Under Chen Shui-bian’s rule, Chiang Kai-shek was not a popular symbol.
“We had one demonstration outside the enclosure, with a person holding up a protest banner, but it was fine. Anyway, this is Taiwan, we’re a democracy. You’re allowed to say what you want,” said Mr Ching.