The Presidential Office yesterday denied a report in Singapore's Straits Times newspaper, according to which China has rejected an offer by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to employ secret envoys. The office said such groundless speculation would lead to misunderstandings not only among the public but also in the international community.
"The report was completely untrue. We have noticed lately that the Straits Times continues to dish up sensational articles on the cross-strait relations issue without providing concrete evidence," said James Huang (黃志芳), spokesman of the Presidential Office.
"It is absolutely inappropriate for the media to write groundless reports or publish wild guesses on the sensitive cross-strait issue," Huang said.
"We therefore urge the newspaper in Singapore not to follow the example of some media institutions in Hong Kong and serve as a mouthpiece for particular political forces," Huang said.
The secret-envoy issue has been mentioned ever since Chen displayed a piece of paper in January during a televised interview as proof that there once was a secret link between himself and Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民).
"The Beijing leader's message was passed on to me by a political heavyweight before my first inauguration on May 20, 2000," Chen said in the interview.
"The message was `one China' [in Chinese], which meant that the other side of the Taiwan Strait expected me to mention the issue in my inauguration speech," Chen said.
According to a Straits Times report from Hong Kong, Chen recently put out feelers about sending senior Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials, academics or businessmen with good connections to China as a goodwill gesture before his inauguration.
Their task would be to find out what Beijing wants him to say in his inaugural speech, as he had done four years ago.
The paper, citing an anonymous source, says China has rejected Chen's offer and also made it clear that it does not want to know what he plans to say in his May 20 inauguration speech.
Though the Presidential Office denied the report, senior government officials told the Taipei Times that since Chen won his second term on March 20, China has turned down requests for visits by several representatives close to the DPP who had delivered Chen's messages to China over the past four years.
"One of them, a former head of a Cabinet-level institute related to diplomatic affairs, is now an academic. He originally prepared to attend a forum in China and was authorized to obtain the Beijing leadership's suggestions, as well as to express Chen's goodwill," the source said.
"But Chinese officials refused to allow him to attend the forum in Beijing," the source said.
The source said that during testimony at a US Congress hearing on Taiwan last month, James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, urgently appealed to both sides of the strait to resume communication.
"Kelly said that the US government continues to urge Beijing and Taipei to pursue dialogue as soon as possible through any available channels, without pre-conditions," the official said.
"During the past four years, there were certain representatives, including academics, politicians, DPP members and business leaders, who carried messages between Taipei and Beijing. However, Beijing recently tightened its control over permitting Taiwan's messengers into the country," the source said.
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