Taiwan could never accept China's demand of referring to the proposed air links across the Strait as "domestic flights," President Chen Shui-bian (
"China insists, as a pre-condition, that the air links be defined as `domestic routes,' which is something I cannot accept, and which the Taiwanese people will also find unacceptable," Chen said at a meeting with representatives of the Council for Industrial and Commercial Development who expressed concern over the issue.
Chen proposed the term "cross-strait routes," which will allow both sides to avoid sensitive words such as "international" or "domestic."
Taiwan refers to the opening of trade, postal and transport relations with China as the "three links."
Chen said yesterday that "two and a half" of the three links have been accomplished, as trade, shipping and postal links have been put into operation.
"The only problem is with air links," Chen said, adding that the main obstacle was Beijing's insistence on the term "domestic routes."
During the meeting, Chen also spoke of his desire to push the "three normalizations" and "four reforms" as part of an effort to enhance the country's competitiveness in the international arena. The "three normalizations" include normalizing cross-strait relations, the Constitution and the relationship between the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan.
The "four reforms" are concerned with halving the number of legislative seats, adopting a "single-seat, two-vote" legislative election system, abolishing the National Assembly and entrenching the right to hold referendums in the Constitution.
Chen said that the government was working on the establishment of a cross-strait peace development council, which would enact legal guidelines for the establishment and development of peace across the Taiwan Strait.
Concerning the normalization of the relationship between the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan, Chen said that it would require restructuring the administration by downsizing the Executive Yuan's divisions.
Before meeting Chen at the Presidential Office yesterday, the council delegation paid a visit to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
Chen yesterday urged the group to transcend political bias in the council's work promoting the nation's economic affairs.
"I hope the group will continue presenting valuable economic suggestions to the government for the welfare of the whole nation and not become a peripheral organization of certain political parties," Chen said.
Meanwhile, Chen said yesterday that his remark that the legislative speaker should be neutral and not concurrently hold a major post in any political party, had not been targeted at a specific individual but was aimed at the development of the country.
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