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`Gifts' met with suspicion

An offer from Beijing to lift travel bans on Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan and to cut tariffs and restrictions on the export of Taiwanese fruit to China was met yesterday with suspicion in Taipei, as cross-strait authorities pointed to possible ulterior motives.

"It does not matter whether we like it [these measures] or not if China has other political motives ... anything with political motives will be manipulated," a high-ranking official with the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.

"These [measures] should not be given as gifts ... What if problems arise? Who will be responsible then?" the official asked, saying that the recent moves were part of Beijing's "united front" tactics.

In addition to making a gift of a pair of giant pandas, Beijing announced yesterday that it is also prepared to lift import bans on six additional types of fruit from Taiwan, bringing the total number to 18. Heavy customs tariffs levied on 15 different fruits, including papayas, guavas, bananas, grapefruits, wax apples, pineapples and betel nuts are also to be revoked.

According to the Council of Agriculture's records, Taiwan exported a total of US$895,400 in fruit products to China last year, and US$974,816 worth of fruit in 2003.

Beijing is also planning a comprehensive relaxation of current travel restrictions, lifting bans on Chinese tourists traveling to Taiwan.

Issuing its latest concessions at the end of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) closely watched visit to China, the measures were announced as a cooperative effort between Beijing's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the KMT and the People First Party (PFP) by Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), the director of the Taiwan Office of the CCP's Central Committee, in Shanghai yesterday.

Chen is also the head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of Beijing's State Council.

"The KMT and the PFP have expressed on many occasions the Taiwan compatriots' desire for [Chinese] residents to travel to Taiwan -- the PFP has come up with specific proposals on this issue," Chen was quoted as saying regarding the removal of travel bans in a report carried on the state-run Xinhua News Agency. He then said that the CCP, KMT and PFP had agreed to facilitate the sale of Taiwanese fruit and agricultural products in China.

MAC expressed dissatisfaction with the arrangement however, highlighting the need for official negotiations and warning that the moves were politically loaded.

"The contingent problems are very broad and require negotiations to build consensus," the MAC official said.

"[China] should not handle the issue in such simplistic terms. With policies of economic relaxation, it is best to sit down and discuss our priorities," the official said.

"The matter needs to be brought back under the system of official negotiations," he said.

He also implored China to back its words up with action, referring to the relaxation of restrictions on Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan's outlying islands last September.

"At the time, the quota was set at 600 tourists a day, but to date, the total number of tourists hasn't reached this figure," he said, highlighting the need for the better execution of policies.

MAC Vice Chairman and spokesman You Ying-lung (游盈隆) said however that the government was optimistic about China's latest move but stressed the need for matters to be handled through negotiation.

"China needs to protect the rights of farmers in granting greater market access to Taiwanese fruit. It can't just be a few benefits here and there. There needs to be a more systematic method of dealing with the matter, or else it really does not benefit farmers," You said.

You said that with regard to Chinese tourism in Taiwan, negotiations were also necessary to work out details.
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