Such expectations seemed to be confirmed by the smooth signing of four agreements on air transportation, marine transportation, postal services and food safety and meetings between Chen and numerous leaders of Taiwan's right-wing Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) government and the KMT party, which had been decades long foes of the PRC's ruling Chinese Communist Party.

But the fatal flaws of such expectations for "reconciliation" and "cross-strait peace" has been dramatically exposed by the statements and actions of Chen Yunlin himself, President Ma and his KMT government and the direct actions of tens of thousands of ordinary Taiwan citizens who took to the streets during the past few days.

The position of President Ma Ying-jeou, as revealed in a news conference yesterday morning before he met briefly with the ARATS delegation at the Taipei Guest House, was that the five day visit was "full of achievements," citing the four agreements which he claimed were "based on equality and beneficial for Taiwan."

Ma countered objections by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and other Taiwan-centric organizations that he had made too many concessions on Taiwan's sovereignty by declaring that he had dealt with cross-strait relations from the status of "president of the Republic of China" and by insisting that he "has not surrendered an inch on sovereignty and reaffirmed that "as a matter of course, only the 23 million Taiwan people can decide the future of Taiwan."

Moreover, Ma complained that he was being unfairly accused for "selling out Taiwan" for realizing agreements already discussed with Beijing by the previous DPP government and said his KMT government had been able to make these "achievements" because it "had gone through acceptance of the 'Consensus of 1992'" reached during the presidency of Taiwan-born Lee Teng-hui to "set aside disputes over sovereignty."

As noted in a previous editorial, Ma's claim that the four agreements are "equal" and did not compromise sovereignty are open to serious question, especially since the KMT government has not merely accepted the mythical "Consensus of 1992" but caved into Beijing's political preconditions of acknowledgement of its own "one China principle" without any room for "different interpretation."

Chen Yunlin himself exposed this reality by refusing to refer to Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan or even Ma by their official titles but blithely by referring to his own boss, PRC State Chairman Hu Jintao, formally as "Chairman Hu," instead of the latter`s concurrent position as CCP general secretary, during a banquet with KMT Chairman Wu Po-hsiung Wednesday evening.

Chen's language clearly placed Ma, Wang and Lai and the 23 million Taiwan people who elected the KMT government in an inferior position to even KMT Honorary Chairman Lien Chan and KMT Chairman Wu.

Nevertheless, the PRC envoy did not escape receiving some lessons in "protocol" from thousands of ordinary Taiwan people during his five day stay.

Despite the use of all possible methods to block the DPP from holding peaceful demonstrations where "noise" might reach the sensitive ears of the PRC envoy, thousands of people took individual and collective actions to declare that "Taiwan is My Country" and denounce China's export to Taiwan of toxic goods.

Taiwan people's power

In these protests, which were met with a degree of police violence rarely seen in the past decade, our citizens sent both the PRC and the KMT a message, which can be summed up in the famous slogan of the American Revolution of "Don't Tread on Us!"

Moreover, many civil society groups stood up and denounced the Ma government for both surrendering Taiwan's "people's sovereignty," its massive mobilization of police against our own people, and for trying to lower our human rights standards to PRC standards.

Ironically, the rally of 500,000 people to "protect Taiwan" in Taipei Oct. 25 did not receive as much international attention as Wednesday's sit-in blockade of Chen Yunlin inside the Grand Formosa Regent Hotel and last night at the Grand Hotel, actions which was may be unprecedented in PRC diplomatic history.

Although Ma and other KMT leaders denounced the "violence" of these unarmed citizens, it is in fact the KMT's monopolization of secret cross-strait negotiations without legislative, media or citizen oversight and its obstruction of the peaceful expression of dissent that forced the people to the streets to protest the KMT's use of state violence.

We are grateful to these Taiwan citizens and the tens of thousands who took part in the DPP "Siege" march yesterday for showing the world that the ordinary Taiwan people refuse to be allowed their future to be decided by the KMT and CCP power elites and have forced Ma to reaffirm, for the first time in six months, the principle that "only the 23 million Taiwan people can decide Taiwan's future."

Neither he, Chen Yunlin or anyone else should ever forget this principle.