SEF's Shi wants to step down

Shi Hwei-yow (許惠祐), the secretary-general of the quasi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), which is authorized to negotiate matters of a technical or business nature with China, yesterday said he wanted to leave his post.

In an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times, Shi said that "there must be somebody more appropriate for this post than me."

Rumors have circulated ever since last year's transfer of power that Shi has his eye on the post of chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC).

The current chairperson, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), is widely touted as a frontrunner for the post of Taiwan's first representative to the WTO in Geneva.

In a possible hint that media criticism has finally taken its toll on him, the cross-strait affairs veteran said, "I have become pretty tough after dealing with China for 10 years, but certain newspaper reports have caused me great offense. Reports that everything I do is in pursuit of a certain post hurt me as a person.

"There must be somebody more appropriate for this post than me," he said.

In the past week the pro-China newspapers China Times and United Daily News both attacked President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) denial of the existence of the so-called "1992 consensus" with Beijing as an election gimmick that risked jeopardizing future cross-strait negotiations.

In a meeting with former US defense secretary William Cohen earlier this month, Chen said there were no documents in Taiwan's official records to substantiate Beijing's claim that Taiwan and China reached a consensus in 1992 on the "one China" principle.

Shi, who was a member of Taiwan's delegation to the negotiations in 1992 at which the consensus is said to have been reached, said that the term "1992 consensus" was coined by Su Chi (蘇起), a former MAC chairperson, but that he was not sure what it referred to.

"Su Chi wanted to establish as much room as possible to get the two sides back to the negotiating table, but he didn't define the `1992 consensus,' which was unhelpful and simply caused more conflict," Shi said.

Shi stressed that he was simply stating the facts of the origins of the term and he offered in support of his case -- as if accusing the China Times of inconsistency -- a report from the paper's edition of June 22 last year with the headline, "One China principle, the two sides have no consensus" as evidence.

"From my perspective, I can leave this position any time. I have held the post for a long time and the position itself is so dangerous that there are always people stabbing me in the back," Shi said.

An aide to SEF Chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫), who wished to remain anonymous, dismissed Shi's remarks about his post, but added, "He is just seeking promotion to the MAC chairmanship."

Shi's denial last week of the existence of the consensus prompted concern on the part of Koo, who asked SEF officials not to comment on the issue, though Koo himself on Friday appealed to the government to "take a serious look at the `1992 consensus' and restart negotiations."

Shi has held his current post since February 1998.