People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) will seriously consider an invitation extended by the Beijing leadership to visit China, but so far, there is no timetable for such a trip, PFP spokesman Hsieh Kong-ping (謝公秉) said yesterday.
Coordination tasks -- including seeking consensus within the PFP as well as consensus between the governing and opposition parties -- are more urgent and need to be dealt with before Soong makes any decision on a visit to Beijing, Hsieh said.
It has always been Soong's goals as the PFP chairman to sort out a "right direction" for efforts seeking common interests across the Taiwan Strait and to enable the two rival sides to treat each other "like a family," Hsieh said, adding that therefore, Soong has tried his utmost in seeking approaches to resolve the cross-strait differences, without having the slightest consideration of his personal standing.
Soong will visit China only at a "proper" time, with the PFP reaching consensus on this matter with the government and having various "possibilities" worked out, Hsieh stressed.
Meanwhile, five PFP legislators jointly appeared at a press conference yesterday to talk about scenarios surrounding Soong's possible visit to China, chorusing that "vision is more important than gesture," and "policy is better than politics."
All five PFP lawmakers said that it is a PFP priority to enact cross-strait peace legislation to set up an institutionalized framework for cross-strait peace. Enactment of the law, however, will be clearly delinked from Soong's China visit plan, they said.
Legislator Lee Yong-ping (
Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (
Legislator Chou Hsi-wei (
"However, it seems that these two parties are now developing some kind of grudge against each other, while the ruling Democratic Progressive Party is apparently showing jealousy without admitting it," he added.
Chou called for political parties to first reconcile with one another before seeking reconciliation with China.
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