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I'm no messenger, James Soong says

He is not a messenger for the government, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) stressed yesterday, while hinting that he may be looking to redefine the controversial "1992 consensus" during a historic tour of China he is leading that leaves today.

At a pre-trip press conference yesterday, Soong acknowledged that he had met with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) about his trip to China, while hinting at the possible agenda of his scheduled high-profile meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).

"I am not a messenger," Soong said, emphasizing that he is going only as himself and as the PFP's chairman, while adding that "messenger" is too narrow a term to describe his function.

The trip, Soong said, is meant to bring all the different voices of Taiwan to China.

To that end, he said had met with executives of both ruling and opposition camps, "including President Chen," to consolidate the views and opinions of all parts of Taiwan's political spectrum.

The acknowledgement marks the first time that Soong has directly admitted to meeting with the president, confirming remarks made by Chen earlier this week.

Soong refused to go into the details of his talk with Chen, however, and denied that the president had asked him to send any message to Hu, in contrast to remarks Chen made on Sunday.

It was important for him to meet with Chen, Soong said, so that he could find out if Chen was still committed to the 10-point agreement they had hammered out in February. Soong hinted that the highlight of his upcoming talks with Hu could possibly be a new version of the controversial "1992 consensus."

The so-called "1992 consensus" holds that Chinese and Taiwanese negotiators made a compromise during 1992 talks in Hong Kong in which they agreed that talks would take place under the "one China" principle, but with each side having their own interpretation of that concept.

Like the KMT, the PFP has stressed that it fully supports the "1992 consensus," which has led to ambiguity about the party's level of accord with Chen, who has said clearly that Taipei does not recognize the purported consensus.

However, Soong yesterday hinted that in light of the 10-point agreement he formulated in February with Chen, a breakthrough redefinition of the consensus might be possible that is in harmony with both Beijing and Taipei.

Chen and Soong met on Feb. 24 and clinched a 10-point agreement pledging, among other things, to maintain the national title of the Republic of China and not to declare Taiwanese independence, in a move to mitigate cross-strait tensions.

In a March 4 statement, Hu reiterated Beijing's insistence on the "one China" principle and opposition to the idea of Taiwanese independence.

There are "intersections" between the 10-point Chen-Soong agreement and Hu's four-point statement on cross-strait relations made directly before the passage of China's "Anti-Secession" Law in March, Soong said.

While the words 1992 consensus are not in the text of the Chen-Soong agreement, Soong said, the agreement has "related content" to the "1992 consensus."

But Soong refused to answer direct questions from the media about how his talks with Hu might involve the consensus.

Soong leaves for his nine-day, eight-night trip today. He is expected to visit five different cities -- Xian, Nanjing, Shanghai, Changsha and Beijing -- and is scheduled to meet with Hu, in the manner of the high-profile summit last week between Hu and Lien.

Like Lien, Soong is also scheduled to speak at a university and will be visiting his family's ancestral home.

Quoting the Paul Simon song, Bridge over Troubled Water, Soong said through his trip, the PFP is attempting to be a communication "bridge."

Saying that the song can be used to describe cross-strait relations, Soong added that the members of the PFP delegation are "lying themselves down" to bridge the communication gap across the Taiwan Strait, because "pain is all around" and because "times [are] rough."
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