Source: NYT (11/4/15)
When Leaders of Taiwan and China Meet, Even Tiny Gestures Will Be Parsed
By AUSTIN RAMZY
Taiwan protesters took issue with President Ma Ying-jeou on Wednesday ahead of his meeting with China’s president, Xi Jinping. Credit Pichi Chuang/Reuters
Xi Jinping has several titles: president of China, general secretary of the Communist Party and sometimes even Dada, a name that is translated as “Uncle” or “Daddy.” When he meets with President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan on Saturday in Singapore, he will simply be “Mister.”
So will Mr. Ma.
The two “misters” are among the most significant symbols of the complicated protocol around the historic meeting of the leaders. What the men call each other, what flags or symbols appear and even who reaches out to shake whose hand and how will all be parsed for meaning in relations between the two sides.
The protocol questions are not simply name games, but rather the product of war and decades of mistrust. China claims self-governed Taiwan as part of its territory and says it must eventually be united. Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Republic of China, fled to Taiwan with his Nationalist forces in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao’s Communists. The two men met in August 1945 but never met again.
For decades, the two sides called each other “bandits,” each claiming to be the rightful government of China. Both believed “a legitimate government and a bandit cannot deal with each other face to face,” said Xu Guoqi, a history professor at the University of Hong Kong. “That principle applied in every category.”
In the 1950s, China withdrew from the Olympic movement, objecting to Taiwan’s participation under the name of the Republic of China. China rejoined in 1979 as the People’s Republic of China. Taiwan was designated “Chinese Taipei” and only allowed to use a special flag. Taiwan boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games in protest over the change.
While “bandits” has fallen from favor, the issue of nomenclature remains. Taiwan’s 11th-hour application to join China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank faltered in April over the name under which it would enter.
Likewise, meetings between representatives from both sides have hit roadblocks over what to call each other. Chinese officials are unwilling to call their counterparts from Taiwan by their official titles out of fear of conferring legitimacy or suggesting Taiwan is a nation.
Taiwan’s main political opposition, the Democratic Progressive Party, has demanded that Mr. Ma not do anything in the meeting on Saturday in Singapore that would signal Taiwan has a lesser status than China.
Mr. Ma must not “limit Taiwan’s future for the sake of personal political plaudits,” Tsai Ing-wen, the party’s chairwoman, said on Wednesday.
Ms. Tsai, the front-runner to succeed Mr. Ma in January elections, also said the sudden timing of the meeting, soon before the vote, would raise questions about whether it was an attempt to influence the outcome.
In Taipei, people gathered outside government buildings to protest the meeting plans. Many criticized Mr. Ma’s administration for arranging the meeting in secret and only revealing it days in advance. Similar complaints were made about trade deals his government reached with Beijing, and last year, student protesters took over Taiwan’s Legislature to block a trade-in-services deal with China.
Andrew Hsia, the head of the Mainland Affairs Council in Taiwan, said Wednesday that Mr. Ma’s goal was to promote trust on both sides and establish a basis for institutionalized meetings between leaders. He said the Taiwan side would participate only as long as “equal status and respect” were upheld.
Mr. Ma and Mr. Xi will participate as the “Taiwan leader” and the “mainland leader,” Mr. Hsia said.
When addressing each other they will use “mister” as a way of shelving the awkward political questions of their titles.
Zhang Zhijun, the head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said the agreement showed a spirit of compromise.
“This is a practical arrangement based on the one-China principle, as the political disagreement across the strait has not been totally resolved,” he said Wednesday, according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency. “The arrangement shows the spirit of putting aside disputes and mutual respect.”
Deciding such a matter in advance may help with awkwardness later on.
In 2008, when Chen Yunlin, the leader of a semiofficial body in China that negotiates with a similar body in Taiwan, met Mr. Ma in Taipei, he paused over what to call the president while giving him a painting. He settled on “you.”