Welcoming the friendly overtures towards Taiwan made by Beijing officials in recent days, Premier Tang Fei (唐飛) yesterday urged China to take advantage of the atmosphere of goodwill by resuming semi-official dialogue with Taiwan.
"Communist China has sent signals that it is ready to free itself from the `one China' framework ... let's hope this goodwill will continue to flourish so that the two sides can sit down for talks," Tang told the legislature.
While Beijing has insisted that Taiwan comply with "the one China principle" as its precondition for the restoration of cross-strait talks, Taiwan has refused to do so, because of its fear that "one China" means the People's Republic of China, recognized by most countries as the only China.
On Wednesday, Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen (錢其琛) told a visiting delegation of New Party legislators that "one China" is only a principle and a foundation for discussions which does not imply any details such as the format under which unification is to be achieved, Taiwan's international status or even its autonomy.
Qian said that the details could be worked out through negotiations as long as the principle were accepted by both sides in the first place.
Tang said Qian's remarks proved that the goodwill gestures made by his government were being reciprocated.
He repeated his proposal that both Taiwan and China drop their original interpretation of "one China" and set their sights on building a "future China." "We've already said that we can discuss [unification] as long as [Beijing] does not insist `one China' is the PRC. We've even said that we won't insist that `one China' is the ROC," Tang said.
What Taiwan hopes for is a democratic China, Tang said.
"There will only be a breakthrough in cross-strait relations if the Straits Exchange Foundation [SEF] and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait [ARATS] return to the negotiation table," Tang said.
SEF and ARATS are semi-official bodies set up by Taiwan and China respectively, to conduct negotiations and to handle cross-strait affairs from which the government is precluded by the absence of official ties. Beijing suspended dialogue between the two bodies in 1995, following former President Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) high-profile visit to the US, which China alleged was a move to promote Taiwan independence.
While ARATS Chairman Wang Daohan (汪道涵) had planned to visit Taiwan in 1999 to pave the way for the restoration of cross-strait dialogue, the trip was again canceled after Lee gave his "special state-to-state" (兩國論) speech to describe Taiwan-China relations.
Receiving the New Party delegation in Shanghai yesterday, Wang said Beijing had noticed that "Taiwan's leader" had moved away from his former pro-independence stance.
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