This coincidence indicates that U.S.-China relations are moving on a course far different from their previous mode of engagements amid the changing global circumstances and cross-Taiwan Strait atmosphere, and that Taiwan has also chosen to go its own way in terms of engaging with China.

During the Cold War, the United States adopted a policy of containment against China, while Taiwan, under the U.S. influence, also trod a confrontational path toward China.

Today, beset with the predicaments of protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the challenges of the post-global financial crisis era, the United States has adjusted its global strategies, with U.S.-China relations first in line for an overhaul. Against this backdrop, Taiwan-U.S. and Taiwan-China relations will definitely be affected.

The United States of course will continue paying attention to Taiwan affairs, but the nature and intensity of its concern will not be on par with the past.

Taiwan should not ignore the steady trend of marginalization of cross-strait issues in U.S.-China engagements and should move forward without hesitation to carve out its own way of dealing with China.

Since the inauguration of President Ma Ying-jeou's administration in May last year, U.S. authorities -- from the White House and the State Department to the Pentagon -- have unanimously and consistently praised its efforts to improve cross-strait relations.

While some people say this phenomenon epitomizes increased Taiwan-U.S. compatibility in their policies toward China, others believe that the U.S. authorities are telling Taiwan that it should follow its own road in dealing with China.

Addressing themselves as "Taiwan" and "the mainland" in signing the bilateral financial MOU is a trail opened by the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in their own rights. We believe that the U.S. role in Taipei-Beijing engagements will fade away fast and that a new era in cross-strait relations has dawned.

Liberty Times: KMT-CPC pacts fail to reflect Taiwan people's wishes U.S. President Barack Obama's latest reaffirmation in Beijing that the United States supports the strengthening of Taiwan-China relations based on its three communiques with China and its Taiwan Relations Act betrays the continuity of its policy on the Taiwan Strait issue.

Stability, security, peace and opposition to unilateral change to the Taiwan Strait status quo have been the top goals of Washington's cross-strait policy.

Maintaining stability, security and peace in the Taiwan Strait is not only in the interests of individual countries in the region but also in their common interest.

This international asset, however, is in jeopardy of collapse as China is stepping up its bid to swallow up Taiwan with saber-rattling and economic allure, with Taiwan's present Kuomintang (KMT) administration acting in collusion.

The Chinese government and President Ma Ying-jeou's administration might think that so long as they reach an agreement on annexing Taiwan to China, it will not mean a unilateral change to the cross-strait status quo.

However, that is a grave misunderstanding. For international society -- the United States included -- any agreement between the KMT and the Communist Party of China (CPC) to annex Taiwan is tantamount to a change to the status quo because both parties recognize "one China." Both the Chinese government and the KMT administration are Chinese regimes, neither of which represent those who identify themselves as Taiwanese.

To put it more frankly, any agreements struck between the KMT and the CPC reflect only the thoughts of Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and have nothing to do with Taiwanese people and Taiwan's sovereign status.

Only from this point of view can we understand why Taiwanese people question the propriety of signing a cross-strait memorandum of understanding (MOU) on financial supervisory cooperation and an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA).

Once Taiwan's economic and financial wellbeing are controlled by China through these two agreements, the materialization of Ma's so-called "ultimate unification" and Chinese President Hu Jintao's overture of "complete unification" will be only a matter of time.

Nevertheless, we must remind Ma and Hu that they still have a hurdle to surmount -- the 1952 San Francisco Peace Treaty, which does not prescribe whether Taiwan's sovereignty belongs to the Republic of China or the People's Republic of China. Whatever secret deal might be struck between the KMT and the CPC, it will not change the provisions of an international treaty.

Moreover, there is the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) -- a U.S. law that requires Washington to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons, assist in safeguarding Taiwan's security and human rights and to show grave concern when non-peaceful means are used to determine Taiwan's future.

When China tried to sway Taiwan's first-ever direct presidential election in 1996, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton sent two aircraft carrier battle groups to the vicinity of the Taiwan Strait. The action proved that the TRA has drawn a clear line over which the CPC and KMT should not try to step.

In the face of the collaboration of Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to gobble up Taiwan, Taiwanese people should not remain silent and should instead voice their opposition while expressing their aspiration for maintaining the country's independent status quo.

Apple Daily Taiwan Relations Act fading into obscurity U.S. President Barack Obama deliberately omitted the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) when he promised in Shanghai to abide by the "one China" policy and the three joint communiques with China in dealing with Taiwan Strait issues.

He also failed to mention the TRA -- a U.S. law that requires Washington to provide defensive weapons to Taiwan and oppose the use of non-peaceful means to change the cross-strait status quo -- in a joint statement issued after his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing Tuesday. He touched only vaguely on the TRA on some less important occasions.

While Taiwanese and American officials and academics have repeatedly claimed that the triangular Taiwan-U.S.-China relations will not change and that the United States will not back off its promise to Taiwan, U.S. policy toward Taiwan is likely to change gradually in the long run.

As a matter of fact, U.S. policy has been changing over time.

Obama's attitude toward Taiwan shown during his China visit was different from those displayed by his predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton during trips they made to China.

If we say Bush and Clinton showed more sympathy to Taiwan than Obama, their goodwill toward Taiwan paled alongside that of their predecessor, the late President Ronald Reagan.

U.S. alienation from Taiwan and its leaning toward China has been a very slow process and one can discern such changes only through a long-term monitoring of developments over the past six decades.

Why is Obama leaning toward China more conspicuously than his predecessors? For one thing, the United States needs China's help to tide it over the present economic recession, as China has emerged as its biggest creditor.

Second, Obama needs China's support for its anti-terrorism policy and its peace overtures for Iran and North Korea. With China growing ever stronger militarily, the U.S. has become more reluctant to provoke China and would prefer to avoid any armed conflict with it.

As a result, topics related to Taiwan and human rights will continue to fade or decline in importance in U.S.-China negotiations and engagements.

The people of Taiwan should take note of this new development and devote more efforts and resources to seek the support of U.S. media, Congress, think tanks, academics and the private sector.

China Times: Opportunities and risks after financial market opening After tedious negotiations, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait finally sealed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on financial supervisory cooperation.

The signing of the pact symbolizes a step toward normalization of financial exchanges across the strait.

The MOU lays a platform for information exchanges and a framework for financial supervision, and paves the way for mutual financial market opening.

Under the MOU, the supervisory agencies of Taiwan and China can dispatch officials to audit and oversee operations of financial institutions on each other's territory.

Without this agreement, the two sides cannot talk about mutual market access. Terms and dates for the cross-strait financial market opening will be negotiated when the two sides begin talks on a broader economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) later this year.

The signing of the MOU offers promising business opportunities for the local banking, insurance and securities sectors. According to an estimate by the Taipei-based China Credit Information Service, the business turnover of the local banking sector will increase by at least five-fold.

Nevertheless, market opening carries some risks, as China sets strict terms on foreign financial institutions and a Taiwanese bank would have to wait for at least three years before being allowed to take deposits and extend loans in Chinese yuan.

In the upcoming ECFA talks, our negotiators should push China to remove such restrictions and give Taiwanese operators preferential treatment.

Meanwhile, the Financial Supervisory Commission should also step up preparations and beef up monitoring measures to address possible challenges and risks that might come with the entry into Taiwan of Chinese banks, insurers and securities operators.

(By Sofia Wu)