on Monday launched a campaign for a regional common market with China at a ceremony attended by the island's President, Chen Shui-bian, Reuters reported. Siew, who left office last May, said regional cooperation would replace political confrontation after Taiwan and China joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) later this year.
Opening his Cross-Strait Common Market Foundation in a plush Taipei hotel, he said: "Gradual progress from economic integration to political integration is the most feasible avenue of peace."
China has asserted its sovereignty over Taiwan ever since the division of the country when its civil war ended in 1949.
Since rapprochement began in the late 1980s, Taiwanese investors have poured T$50 billion into China, but Taipei still bans investment in strategic industries and infrastructure on the mainland on national security considerations.
In his speech, Chen did not directly endorse the new foundation. However, he said Taiwan and China should "shelve their disputes and strengthen economic exchanges and cooperation and build lasting peace and stable cross-strait relations."
Siew, a vice-chairman of the main opposition Nationalist Party, has raised T$100 million (US$3 million) to launch the new body. He and 19 business leaders donated T$5 million each.
Donors include Morris Chang, chairman of the island's most heavily capitalised firm Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, and Kao Chin-yen, vice-chairman of food giant Uni-President.
"Economically, integration is beneficial to both sides. Politically, peace is a win-win situation," Siew said.
"If we deal with it well, mainland China will be a helping hand for Taiwan's survival and development; if we deal with it badly, our room for survival and development will become more narrow and dangerous," he added.
Chen's presidential election victory last year alarmed Beijing, which threatened to attack if Taiwan declared independence or dragged its feet on unification talks.
Chen has staved off a belligerent Beijing with soothing words, but ties remain at an impasse.
Beijing angrily froze dialogue with Taipei in July 1999 to punish the island for demanding political parity by redefining bilateral ties as "special state to state relations."
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