Since Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou took office in May 2008, the island has sure been paling around with mainland China.
Former president Chen Shui-bian must be turning in his jail cot. Not only has his successor signed the historic and wide-reaching Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with China that came into effect last Sunday, he has also, for the first time ever, allowed Taiwan’s coast guard to work side by side with China’s in a joint rescue drill this week.
This kind of cooperation was unheard of under the disgraced Chen’s stewardship. Back then there was little in the way of détente with the mainland and lots in the way of belligerence, not to mention money laundering allegations. (In the interests of fairness we should point out that the allegations have not been proved and Chen says he is innocent. Just like everyone else in the grey bar hotel.)
Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) held the rescue exercise with China's Maritime Search and Rescue Center in waters off southeastern China, between Taiwan's Kinmen Island and the Chinese city of Xiamen.
Sixty years ago the mainland and Taiwan were fighting fierce battles in the very same waters. This time the meetings were free of aggression.
There was a simulated collision in the busy Kinmen-Xiamen shipping route and a bunch of people fell into the sea, requiring rescuing. Taiwan dispatched nine patrol boats, including a 500-tonne vessel, and helicopters to Kinmen for the joint drill.
However, all the vessels involved in the drill carried neutral flags symbolizing the exercise rather than flying their national colours. This was no doubt to avoid any trigger-happiness on either side, no idle concern considering that the bulk of Taiwan’s military spending is dedicated to defending the island in the event of an attack from the mainland, and the mainland has hundreds of missiles pointed at Taiwan and ready to go at the drop of a Communist Party hat.
Taiwan and mainland China emphasized that the drill was held to prepare for accidents in the Taiwan Strait, a body of water that can be a dangerous place. Most of the typhoons in Asia tear through the narrow waterway, whipping up furious seas in what is one of the busiest shipping routes in the world. Apart from the foreign vessels that plough their way to and from the major ports there are countless ships on the domestic coastal trade, oil and gas support vessels and fishing boats in the area at any given time.
The knowledge that the coast guards on both sides of the strait are ready for action should have passing seafarers sleeping a little sounder in their cribs.