Taiwan's top cross-strait negotiator said yesterday he would pay another visit to China if it would help break the freeze in dialogue since the "two-states" declaration in July.
Speaking on the first anniversary of his trip to China, Koo Chen-fu (
"In recent months, the mainland has held a different opinion of our clarification of the political status that exists across the Taiwan Strait and broke off contacts with the SEF," Koo said.
Since Taiwan clarified cross-strait relations as being "special state-to-state" in nature, Beijing has responded with a barrage of verbal attacks, demanding the statement be revoked.
China has said that the proposed visit of its negotiator, Wang Daohan (汪1D2[), head of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) to Taiwan would be called off unless the "two-states" statement is retracted.
Koo reiterated yesterday that Taiwan would not retract the statement because it reflects the reality of current cross-strait relations, but he held out hope for further negotiations.
"The nation [`one China'] is not yet reunified and differences do exist across the Strait," Koo said, "but we should face these differences and continue our dialogue."
Spring has passed and fall is here, Koo said, but the mainland has neither indicated if Wang is still coming nor canceled his visit.
Koo said he was willing to make another trip to China if necessary, to invite Wang again to visit Taiwan.
"Perhaps I can go to Beijing or Shanghai to pay my respects to Mr Wang," Koo said. "After all, he is a year older than me." Koo stopped short of giving a specific time frame for such a trip to take place, but he added, "not when it is too cold."
Yesterday marked a year in passing since Koo and Wang met at the Peace Hotel in Shanghai -- their first since the 1993 SEF-ARATS meeting in Singapore.
The "ice-breaker" meeting -- the first since China fired missiles into the Taiwan Strait in 1995-96 -- yielded no breakthroughs, but both sides agreed to continue talking. At the same occasion, Koo extended an invitation to Wang to visit the island.
Not all of Koo's speech yesterday was upbeat, however, as he took issue again with China's interference in the arrival of international rescue teams to Taiwan in the aftermath of the Sept. 21 earthquake.
"We hope there is more humanitarian assistance and less political interference across the Strait to help increase mutual trust and ensure the normalization of cross-strait relations in the 21st century," Koo said.
Meanwhile, Koo declined to say whether he is expected to be re-appointed as SEF chairman when his term ends in early December.
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