Taiwan and China will make no progress in solving their long-standing differences if Beijing continues to court the opposition and ignore the ruling party, Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), president of Academia Sinica and head of the President's Advisory Group on Cross Strait Relations, said yesterday.
His remarks came a day after a delegation of opposition lawmakers returned from a tour of China that included meetings with several Chinese officials.
Lawmakers from the KMT and the New Party have made many trips to China in recent months and have been granted access to some of China's top leaders.
According to a number of DPP lawmakers who met with Lee on Wednesday to discuss cross-strait relations., Lee had already asked certain American friends of his to urge Beijing's leaders to enter into a dialogue with Taiwan's ruling DPP.
But Lee, Taiwan's sole Nobel Prize laureate, denied yesterday that any envoy had been authorized by him to deliver such a message to Beijing or any Chinese leader.
"It is true that I hope Beijing will talk directly with the DPP," Lee said, "but that rumor [of the secret envoy] is totally untrue."
DPP lawmakers said that Lee had formally suggested to President Chen Shui-bian (
"Lee suggested that the National Reunification Committee (
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