Stability with Chinese Characteristics: Hu Jintao’s Taiwan Policy

Abstract

Even as Xi Jinping begins to make his personal imprint on Cross-Strait relations, he has to contend with his predecessor, Hu Jintao’s policy towards Taiwan that generated a modus vivendi, acting as a precursor to a slew of trade related agreements between the two sides leading to the ECFA in 2010. On Taiwan, the ‘status quo’ aspect of Cross-Strait relations has assumed overwhelming consensus with calls for deeper economic engagement with the mainland. Broadly, a template with its own characteristics emerges of a selective reconciling of differences with certain accommodations of interests making the Cross-Strait relations a unique model. This article situates Cross-Strait relations during Hu Jintao’s term from 2002–2012, and advances the proposition that the mechanics of an eventual integration are underway with deeper economic cooperation being the first phase of a comprehensive framework under construction. To Beijing, its behaviour on Cross-Strait issues is intrinsic to its announced process of ‘peaceful development’. However, the ‘relative’ success of the on-going process of economic integration does not have to be interpreted as an overwhelming endorsement of the methodology adopted, since closer relations with the mainland is a deeply divisive and politically charged issue in Taiwan.