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MAC comments on Chinese visits

Former president Lee Teng-hui, third left, accompanied by Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Shu Chin-chiang, second left, and other TSU members, yesterday addresses the audience at a rally in Keelung City to drum up support for TSU candidate for Keelung City mayor Chen Chien-ming, third right. President Chen Shui-bian spoke at another rally in support of Chen Chien-ming the night before, and outlined two alternatives for China before a top Chinese official would be allowed to visit Taiwan. PHOTO: YANG PEI-HUA, TAIPEI TIMES

Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday the government will deal with high-level Chinese officials' requests to visit Taiwan based on the principles of equality, reciprocity and negotiations by working level officials.

Wu made the remarks after President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) raised two conditions before Taiwan could welcome Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), head of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, for a visit.

The president said Taiwan would give the green light for Chen Yunlin's visit only if Beijing allowed Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to attend next month's APEC meeting in Busan, South Korea, or if it let Wu visit China.

He made the remarks on Saturday night while campaigning for Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘), the Taiwan Solidarity Union's candidate for Keelung City mayor.

"If Wang is not allowed to attend the APEC summit, [China] don't even think that Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) will be able to come [to Taiwan]," Chen said.

"[Or] if China lets Wu visit pro-democracy activists in China, Taiwan will acquiesce in approving Chen's visit," the president said.

Chen said that the first option followed the precedent set by China, which has opposed the president's decision to select Wang to act as his envoy to the APEC summit.

The second alternative was based on the principle of equality and reciprocity, he said.

Chen's decision to name Wang as his proxy to the summit won the backing of politicians from across party lines, but Seoul rejected Wang as a result of China's opposition.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon has urged the government to send another candidate with a background in economics.

"If lacking a background in economic affairs is a defensible reason to reject Wang's attendance at APEC, why should Taiwan say yes to Chen Yunlin's request?" the president said.

The president said that Chen Yunlin, who was invited by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to attend a party-to-party forum on business, is also not a person with a background in economics.

According to a Central News Agency report last Thursday, the KMT filed an application with the government for Chen Yunlin and other high-level officials in China's Taiwan Affairs Office to visit Taiwan in December.

Referring to the past conventions, Wu said that negotiations were required to arrange the visits of high-level officials.

Taiwan sent working level officials to China to make arrangements for Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫), former president of the Straits Exchange Foundation, to Shanghai and Beijing in 1998, and China also sent working level officials to Taiwan in 1999, when Taiwan was preparing to welcome Wang Dao-han (汪道涵), the president of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits.

"Koo and Wang were not government officials but civilians. We made these kind of arrangements for civilians [to visit], not to mention such a high-level official in China as Chen Yunlin," Wu said.

Regarding the president's second proposal, Wu also said that he would be more than happy to visit China as long as the visit was in the interests of the Taiwanese people.
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