Background: ARATS, SEF build peaceful ties

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Source: CCTV.com | 11-04-2008 14:29

The mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation are semi-official intermediary bodies. They were set up to handle cross strait affairs in the absence of official ties.

In April 1993, the first "Wang-Koo" meeting was held  in Singapore, a historic step forward in cross-strait ties.

Since late 1987, exchanges in trade, economy and other fields across the Taiwan Straits have kept increasing. The Taiwan authorities set up the Straits Exchange Foundation or SEF, in 1990, to contact and negotiate with the Chinese mainland. In response, the Chinese mainland established the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, or ARATS, in 1991 to promote exchanges across the Straits.

In November 1992, the two organizations reached the "1992 consensus", agreeing that both sides of the Taiwan Straits adhere to the "One China principle" and orally explain the principle in their own ways. The agreement paved the way for the meeting of former President of ARATS Wang Daohan and former Chairman of SEF Koo Chen-fu.

In April 1993, the first "Wang-Koo" meeting was held in Singapore, a historic step forward in cross-strait ties. And in their second meeting 5 year later, the two sides agreed on the continuation of political dialogue between Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

However, former Taiwan leaders Li Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian denied the One China Policy and promoted secessionism, destroying the basis of cross-strait talks, and pushing relations into a stalemate again.