Beijing spells out possible unification model for Taiwan

Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen (錢其琛) told a delegation from Taiwan's New Party yesterday that Beijing has no intention of forcing Taiwan to "exactly follow" the Hong Kong and Macau models regarding the country's unification.

According to the New Party's group spokesman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明), Qian said during a discussion on cross-strait relations that Beijing's basic stance regarding Taiwan is the so-called "one-two-three insistence" -- insisting on "one China, two-side [cross-strait] negotiation and three direct [trade, postal and transport] links."

Although Taiwan has adopted capitalism like Hong Kong and Macau, the Beijing official said that the mainland will not ask Taiwan to completely follow the models used for returning the two districts to Beijing rule.

He outlined what he described as seven "concrete measures" for implementing the "one country, two systems" policy in Taiwan -- Taiwan will continue to use its currency; it will continue to keep its troops; it will be an independent region for customs and tariffs; it will continue to keep its government framework; the mainland will not take even one cent from Taiwan and will not use Taiwan's capital; Taiwan people and businessmen will hold on to their property and Taiwan's government officials will remain independent from the mainland's and no mainland officials will be dispatched to Taiwan.

After hearing Qian explain Beijing's policy toward Taiwan, the leader of the tiny opposition party delegation, Hsu Li-nung (許歷農), told Qian that the Beijing trip was designed to conduct direct talks between party organizations with the hope of ensuring peace across the Taiwan Strait and "promoting unification of China."

Hsu especially stressed to Qian that the use of military force against Taiwan would adversely affect the mainland's economic development, to which Qian replied that "we have been pursuing peaceful unification."