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MAC suggests discussing uncontroversial issues

Taiwan and China should reopen talks as soon as possible, first engaging one another on issues that are without political connotations, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said yesterday.

Chiu made the remarks after attending a seminar sponsored by the Graduate Institute of American Studies at Tamkang University.

Saying that the MAC -- the nation's highest-ranking government agency that deals with China policy -- fully understands China's insistence on certain principles in its relations with Taiwan, Chiu said the MAC hopes that in turn China will come to better understand Taiwan's democratic development and the thinking of its people.

If the two sides of the Taiwan Strait could come to a better understanding of each other, and a meeting could go forward between Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Wang Daohan (汪道涵), progress could then be made toward reaching a consensus.

Taiwan and China can restart their negotiations by first focusing on matters without political connotations and only later moving toward more complex issues, Chiu said.

Chiu said that Beijing had displayed a high degree of willingness to restart cross-strait dialogue in its seven-point statement issued on May 17, prior to President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) inauguration. Chiu said that the two sides should seize the opportunity to address issues of mutual concern in a pragmatic fashion and brush aside their political disputes.

To advance that goal, a new Koo-Wang meeting would be a good platform for restarting talks that were suspended after former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) introduced his "special state-to-state" model in 1999, Chiu added.

Saying that cross-strait disputes must be resolved peacefully and that the differences between Taiwan and China are a result of differences between the two countries' systems, Chiu said that the international community would not accept the use of force by China to resolve its disputes with Taiwan. Good faith and good deeds are the key to forging interaction, Chiu said.

Koo and Wang, the top negotiators for Taiwan and China, met for the first time in 1993 in Singapore, marking an historic contact between the two sides.

MAC Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) issued a public invitation to Wang Thursday, asking the Chinese negotiator to visit Taiwan.
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