Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) officials said yesterday Taiwan's cross-strait negotiator will attend the handover of Macau next month from Portugal to China, if the three principles of dignity, pragmatism and propriety are maintained.
While unable to confirm whether an invitation had been extended to Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫), the officials said if China set conditions for the attendance of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) chairman, it would prevent him from going.
When MAC vice chairman Lin Chong-pin (
There is press speculation that Koo has already been invited to the Dec. 19 handover and that China bypassed the MAC in doing so.
A local paper reported yesterday that Taiwan's representative office in Macau had already reserved a room at the Westin Hotel for Koo, and had received assurances that he would be invited.
Lin said that when China sent an invitation, Koo would have to make sure that he had the time to attend and whether the content and details of the invitation were suitable.
Koo attended the Hong Kong handover in 1997, just one year after China had conducted live missile tests in the Taiwan Strait, in the lead up to the island's first direct presidential election.
Once again relations are tense between the two sides, this time over President Lee Teng-hui's (
Since then China has actively protested Taiwan's stance, unwilling to accept what Taiwan says is its status as a legitimate democratic state which elects its own rulers.
China has continued to oppose the resumption of unification talks with Taiwan and has vetoed a trip by its top negotiator to Taiwan, scheduled for this fall
Koo recently suggested that he visited China, but Beijing's negotiator, Wang Daohan (汪1D2[), head of the Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, said this was not possible until Taiwan rejected its "state to state" pronouncement.
Taiwan argues that it has not revised its constitution, or laws, and that it has merely set out its negotiating position for unification with China.
This, it says, which will give it the dignity and parity it deserves.
Meanwhile, Lin also denounced the acts of Chinese fishermen yesterday, saying the taking of a Taiwanese fishing vessel off the coast of Taiwan was an act of piracy.
The Hocheng 11, based in Keelung, sent up a distress signal after it was rammed by three Chinese fishing vessels off the northern part of Taiwan early Wednesday morning, Lin said.
Local media reported the Taiwan fishing boat had been abducted to the port of Yuhuan in China's coastal Zhejiang pro-vince.
Taiwan "gravely denounces such piracy," Lin said, "We urge mainland authorities to restrain their fishing boats from illegally breaching our territorial waters."
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