The economic forum between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is like a "fig leaf" covering up China's "malicious intentions" toward Taiwan, President Chen Shui-bian (
"The CCP-KMT Trade and Economic Forum, the second Lien-Hu meeting, is like a fig leaf intended to cover up the malicious intentions of the Chinese government ... to evade pressure from Washington to talk to the Taiwanese authorities before the Bush-Hu meeting," Chen said yesterday, referring to the meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰).
Chen made the comments at a meeting with members of the US National Committee on American Foreign Policy at the Presidential Office yesterday.
Chen said that the meeting between Hu and Lien, who is in Beijing and is scheduled to meet with Hu tomorrow, was aimed at concealing that the CCP leadership was not willing to deal with the Taiwanese authorities before Hu met with US President George W. Bush on Thursday.
Chen said that Hu used the same strategy when he met Lien a year ago, just after China passed its "Anti-Secession" Law, to allay international opposition to the law.
Chen said the Lien-Hu meeting was likely to be fruitless.
He referred to a report in the latest edition of The Journalist magazine, which said that a year after the first Lien-Hu meeting, the promises that the CCP had made remained unrealized.
"Even The Journalist, which has long been on good terms with the KMT, said in its latest cover story that the six-point consensus reached at the first Lien-Hu meeting is still unresolved," Chen said.
"The subtitle of the report is interesting as well. It says that on the first anniversary of the Lien-Hu meeting, we only see `grandpa Lien' hiding behind pandas. The KMT has done nothing," he said.
He urged the Chinese leadership to talk to the elected leaders of Taiwan directly, adding that this would be the only way to solve cross-strait problems.
KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
"I understand that the DPP feels anxious about chairman Lien's visit ... I think we should treat such personal attacks with indifference," he said yesterday during a media session at Taipei City Hall.
Ma lauded Lien's trip to China last year as an "irresistible trend" in response to "the feelings of the people," and said that this week's CCP-KMT summit had prompted the government to speed up the policy it had been scheduled to discuss in June.
In Beijing yesterday, Lien said that Taiwan needed China's factories and markets to succeed.
"Without the resources of the mainland, Taiwan cannot go far," Lien said. "Let us work together for prosperity for the whole nation and let us join forces, on both sides of the Strait, to push forward the economic miracle of the Chinese nation."
He also urged Taiwan to allow regular direct flights and expand trade with China.
Lien said that the lack of direct transport links between Taiwan and China was hampering economic flows vital to Taiwan's prosperity.
"Faced with China's rise, we should be benign, optimistic and focused on co-existence and shared prosperity," Lien said. "Don't demonize and vilify China, and don't treat it as a threat."
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