It is a sign of the continued bitterness of Taiwanese politics that Lien Chan, the head of the opposition KMT party, is busy trying to arrange a trip to China to meet with PRC president Hu Jintao, while at the same time point-blank refusing a meeting with ROC president Chen ShuiBian. Unfortunately, assuming Lien’s trip to Beijing goes ahead, things are going to get even more divided in Taiwan afterwards.

The most recent spat is over the legal status of these trips to China. Last month’s visit to China by KMT vice-chairman P.K. Chiang, while mainly symbolic, concluded with a 10-point agreement between the CCP and the KMT. This was treated with some distrust by the DPP – who questioned whether the deal was illegal. There seem to be two laws which might be relevant. The first is Article 113 of the criminal code:

Those who make private agreement with a foreign country’s government or designees thereof, without approval of the government, on matters needing approval by the government, are to be punished by a sentence of life or seven years in prison.

Of course an important phrase here is ‘foreign country’; while it might seem reasonable to call the PRC a separate government, officially the ROC still claims sovereignty over the whole of China, so making the PRC a (long lasting) rebel uprising. The pan-Greens are pushing this law however, as they would love to see a judicial ruling that considered the PRC a foreign government.

The other law is Article 5 of the Act Governing Relations Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area which says:

no “Taiwan area” citizen, legal person, organization or any other organ shall make deals involving government power (or jurisdiction) or political issues with their counterparts on the mainland without prior authorization from the Mainland Affairs Council.

Whether the rather vague 10-point agreement that the KMT and the CCP came up with breaks either of these laws is debatable (and indeed is being vigourously debated in Taiwan). What is clear though is that any agreement made by Lien in his trip will bring up exactly the same issues. By refusing to see President Chen before his trip, Lien Chan is basically daring him to charge him under these laws on return from his trip.