Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday confirmed he met with former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) on Monday night to discuss issues to be covered at the party's upcoming economic summit with China.
Ma said that among the topics discussed were comments he made on cross-strait issues during his trip to the US last month.
Ma declined to confirm that Lien -- who is scheduled to travel to China on Friday to attend an economic summit with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) -- would act as his messenger, but said the former chairman should "know how to communicate with the other side."
"[Former] chairman Lien knows exactly what I said in the US, and I also gave him all the related information," Ma said yesterday after presiding over a municipal meeting at Taipei City Hall.
During Ma's visit to the US, he spoke of a program aimed at engagement with China, which he labeled the "five dos," in a speech at Harvard University.
Ma also mentioned the concept of a new modus vivendi, a temporary structure to allow Taiwan's international participation before a permanent settlement with China is reached.
Ma rebuffed President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) suggestion that Lien would invite Hu to say whether he endorsed the KMT's definition of the so-called "1992 consensus."
During a meeting between Chen and Ma at the Presidential Office last week, Ma urged Chen to recognize the "`1992 consensus,' according to which Taiwan and China agree that there is `one China,' but disagree on what that means."
Chen responded that he would accept this principle if Hu did so as well. He challenged Lien to ask Hu to make his position clear.
"As president of the Republic of China (ROC), why is he afraid to admit that the country he represents is the ROC?" Ma said yesterday.
Ma said Lien had already made it clear that he would not be Chen's messenger, adding that the former chairman would address issues such as direct flights.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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