Considering China's offer, we saw how the government responded. However, how would the government respond when a Taiwanese Company actually does request Chinese escort? 

Today on Xinhua: "Mainland Naval Fleet Escorts Taiwan Merchant Ship off Somalia."

A Chinese mainland naval fleet on Monday began to carry out an escort mission for four merchant ships including one from Taiwan in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia...

... Rear-Admiral Du Jingchen, commander of the naval fleet, said safeguarding transport in the Gulf of Aden and maintaining security of ships was the common wish of all pacifists including compatriots across the Taiwan Straits...

Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) reponse: excerpt from "ROC ship escorted by China off Somalia registered in Liberia: MAC."

A Mainland Affairs Council official said Tuesday that the Chinese navy's escort of a Taiwanese ship in the Gulf of Aden to protect it from pirate attacks was not arranged by Taiwan and that the ship was not registered in Taiwan or being used by a local company.

The council had previously said it would not request or accept assitance for Taiwanese ships from the Chinese naval fleet, but that pledge seemed to be ignored when one of the ships escorted Monday was an oil products tanker belonging to Taiwan's Formosa Plastics Group named FormosaProduct Cosmos.

The MAC, however, denied any involvement in arranging the 553-nautical-mile escort and said the ship was registered in Liberia and rented out to a South Korean company.

"The MAC has in no way authorized Taiwan's semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) to negotiate or accept the protection of Taiwanese vessels by the Chinese naval fleet in the Gulf of Aden, " said Chao.

He stressed that Taiwan is not prepared to accept China's offer to help and has no plans at the moment to negotiate the issue.

Beijing's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) notified the SEF Dec. 12 that Taiwanese ships under attack or afraid of being attacked by Somalian pirates in the Gulf of Aden could request protection from China's naval task force through the SEF.

"There is currently no mechanism for processing requests by Taiwanese ships seeking escorts from Chinese warships in the Gulf of Aden, despite the Chinese Foreign Ministry's offer to protect Taiwanese vessels from pirates in the area," Chao said.

Now lets wait for the Presidential Office's reaction.

1. Excerpts from Taipei Times "Government still mulling use of anti-piracy frigates":

The Presidential Office yesterday said the government was still considering whether to dispatch naval frigates to Somalia to protect Taiwanese vessels, but said any Taiwanese business or fishing boats facing pirate threats could seek help from nearby naval fleets from other countries.

Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that more than 40 countries, including China, had naval fleets stationed near the pirate-infested Somalian coast.

Any of them would come to the rescue of a Taiwanese vessel out of moral obligation once it received a distress signal, Wang said...

... While Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) yesterday said a deployment of naval frigates would be the right decision, KMT Legislator Shuai Hua-min (帥化民) said it was too early to talk about dispatching naval frigates to the Gulf of Aden to protect Taiwanese ships.

It was not an issue of whether the navy was capable of protecting Taiwanese ships, but one of the international community’s attitude toward Taiwan, he said....

...“An invitation for Taiwan to dispatch naval frigates to protect Taiwanese ships from pirates in the waters off Somalia would be welcomed, but it would be a major embarrassment if Taiwan’s offer to do so were rejected,” Shuai said... 

... Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) added that the matter could well serve to test Chinese President Hu Jintao’s (胡錦濤) sincerity when he made a six-point overture to Taiwan on Dec. 31 on the peaceful development of cross-strait ties.

2. Exerpt from report on Hu Jintao's six-point overture to Taiwan:

First, the Chinese leader appeared willing to accord a certain degree of recognition to the Taiwanese government. For the sake of advancing cross-strait negotiation, he proposed that "both sides could start discussion on bilateral political relations under the special circumstances that the country is not yet unified".

Hu's words signalled for the first time Beijing's willingness to approach cross-strait relations on the basis that Taiwan is, in effect, governed by a legitimate authority.

It was a positive response to Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou's call last November for 'mutual non-denial'. Hu's move should go some way towards ameliorating, if not resolving, bilateral conflicts since Taipei insists that without mutual recognition it would be dwarfed when it enters into negotiations with Beijing.

Second, Hu called for cross-strait military exchanges leading to the creation of a confidence-building mechanism (CBM) to ensure military stability. This is the first time that Beijing has called for exchanges between the two militaries.

The idea of a CBM was first raised by former Taiwanese president Chen Shui- bian during his first term in office. At the time, Beijing dismissed the proposal on the grounds that CBMs were arrangements between sovereign authorities.

Third, Hu said that the mainland was willing to discuss with Taiwan "proper and reasonable arrangements for Taiwan's participation in international organisations" - as long as such arrangements did not create 'two Chinas' or 'one China, one Taiwan'. In other words, Hu was signalling that Beijing was open to all reasonable suggestions on Taiwan's international participation so long as they do not create false impressions.

Compared with all previous statements on this issue - they had merely expressed an "understanding of the desire of the Taiwanese", or "of the Taiwanese feeling" - the latest is clearly ground-breaking, at least in symbolic if not substantive terms.

Of course, the litmus test of Beijing's sincerity will come in May and September when Taiwan seeks observer status in the World Health Assembly, policy body of WHO, and the United Nations, respectively.

Fourth, Beijing said, for the first time, that it was willing to engage Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Never before has an official document from Beijing ever mentioned the DPP by name. The DPP used to be referred to derogatively as "some separatist forces". This time, Hu promised to "react positively" if the DPP abandoned its independence platform.

The Chinese leader also showed flexibility and tolerance when he said that the Taiwanese people's strong sense of local identity was understandable and should not be equated with separatism.

Finally, on the key 'one China' principle, there was some fine-tuning, with Beijing trying to formulate it in terms more acceptable to Taipei.

Hu said that the two sides not being unified was not a problem of split sovereignty. It was rather a legacy of the civil war in China in the late 1940s, which pitted the Kuomintang against the Chinese Communist Party.

Hence re-unification did not signify the re-creation of China's sovereignty and territorial integrity - which had never been divided to begin with - but an end to the fight between the rival political parties.

As long as both sides preserved 'the 'one China' framework', Hu promised, "anything could be discussed". It is noteworthy that he refrained from insisting on the 'one China principle' in this context, which would have suggested that 'one China' was both the pre-condition as well as the final outcome of cross-strait negotiations.

3. Complete Mandarin overture here.

1. China sends navy to fight Somali pirates:

Three Chinese navy ships, armed with special forces, helicopters and missiles, are on their way to join the international anti-piracy task force patrolling the waters off Somalia.

2.Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan ships can request escort of Chinese mainland navy:

Ships from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan can request the escort services of the Chinese mainland's navy fleet in Somalian waters, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang at a regular press conference here Tuesday.

3.Taiwan considers sending naval force to Somali waters:

A senior official says Taiwan is considering sending a naval force to protect its fishing vessels off the coast of the African nation of Somalia.

Thursday's comments by Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Chao Chien-min come amid rising concern over attacks by Somali-based pirates against foreign vessels, including those from Taiwan.

Chao says that the Taiwanese government is currently studying the feasibility of dispatching its navy to the area, but that a final decision has not yet been reached.

There are now more than a dozen warships guarding Somalia's waters. Countries including the US, Britain, China, France, Germany and Iran have naval forces off the Somali coast or on their way there.

Hearing lots of rumors now. Let's see how it develops.