Recent Cross-Strait Relations and the United States

Abstract

This paper first analyzes Taiwan-mainland China relations in the context of PRC President Jiang Zemin’s eight-point proposal on the unification issue and ROC President Lee Teng-hui’s six-point response in early 1995. Next, the paper discusses Lee’s visit to the United States in June 1995 and the PRC’s violent reaction to the visit, which resulted in the PRC’s military exercises in the Taiwan Strait, its public denunciation of Lee, and the suspension of the talks between the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF-ROC) and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS-PRC). Since Lee’s landslide presidential election victory in Taiwan, he has repeatedly called on the PRC to resume talks, but the PRC has refused to respond positively to the calls, and Taiwan-mainland China relations remain uncertain and volatile,