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Finally, Chen and Lien arrange a chat over the phone

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will speak by telephone this Monday regarding Lien's trip to China next week, a KMT spokesman said yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference at KMT central headquarters, KMT spokesman Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭) said Lien would call Chen on Monday afternoon, and that the time of the call was settled on by KMT Secretary-General Lin Feng-cheng (林豐正) and Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun yesterday morning.

"President Chen wishes to talk to Chairman Lien because of Lien's upcoming trip to China. I believe that the main point of their conversation will be cross-strait relations," Chang said.

Yu said he told Lin that Chen would support Lien's trip if it was premised on protecting the national interest and the well-being of the people.

Yu also said that if China held genuine goodwill toward Taiwan, it would start a dialogue with Taiwan's government.

Pressure

The arrangement follows continued pressure from the Chen administration on the KMT to contact it before Lien makes his high-profile trip to China, during which he will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).

Speaking yesterday on whether or not he plans to speak personally with Chen about his own upcoming trip to China, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) said he would not rule out the possibility.

"There is currently no plan [to meet with Chen]. However, if there is a need to do so, then [I] do not eliminate the possibility of communicating with him in private or in public," Soong said.

The PFP has said that Soong's trip would take place in the first 10 days of May. CNA reported yesterday that the PFP Secretary-General Chin Chin-sheng (秦金生) will head a preparatory delegation to China tomorrow. In a telephone interview with the Taipei Times, PFP spokesman Hsieh Kung-pin (謝公秉) confirmed the plan.

Soong yesterday said he was neither a "special envoy" nor an ambassador for Chen as some media reports have suggested.

"I am traveling in a personal capacity and as PFP chairman to allow China to better understand Taiwan and understand the factors involved in cross-strait relations. I am not Mr. Chen Shui-bian's `agent' or `special ambassador,'" he said.

Unapologetic

In response to former president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) attack yesterday on his and Lien's trips to China, Soong was unapologetic.

"Lee raised [several] points of `wrongness.' I feel that there is only one thing wrong with the points Lee raised -- he was completely wrong," Soong said at a PFP press conference.

"The opposition parties of the Republic of China are seeking to help the Taiwanese people have a hopeful and peaceful future, which is what everyone should be doing," he said.

Additional reporting by Huang Tai-lin
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