Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday the government will deal with high-level Chinese officials' requests to visit Taiwan based on the principles of equality, reciprocity and negotiations by working level officials.
Wu made the remarks after President Chen Shui-bian (
The president said Taiwan would give the green light for Chen Yunlin's visit only if Beijing allowed Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to attend next month's APEC meeting in Busan, South Korea, or if it let Wu visit China.
PHOTO: YANG PEI-HUA, TAIPEI TIMES
He made the remarks on Saturday night while campaigning for Chen Chien-ming (
"If Wang is not allowed to attend the APEC summit, [China] don't even think that Chen Yunlin (
"[Or] if China lets Wu visit pro-democracy activists in China, Taiwan will acquiesce in approving Chen's visit," the president said.
Chen said that the first option followed the precedent set by China, which has opposed the president's decision to select Wang to act as his envoy to the APEC summit.
The second alternative was based on the principle of equality and reciprocity, he said.
Chen's decision to name Wang as his proxy to the summit won the backing of politicians from across party lines, but Seoul rejected Wang as a result of China's opposition.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon has urged the government to send another candidate with a background in economics.
"If lacking a background in economic affairs is a defensible reason to reject Wang's attendance at APEC, why should Taiwan say yes to Chen Yunlin's request?" the president said.
The president said that Chen Yunlin, who was invited by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to attend a party-to-party forum on business, is also not a person with a background in economics.
According to a Central News Agency report last Thursday, the KMT filed an application with the government for Chen Yunlin and other high-level officials in China's Taiwan Affairs Office to visit Taiwan in December.
Referring to the past conventions, Wu said that negotiations were required to arrange the visits of high-level officials.
Taiwan sent working level officials to China to make arrangements for Koo Chen-fu (
"Koo and Wang were not government officials but civilians. We made these kind of arrangements for civilians [to visit], not to mention such a high-level official in China as Chen Yunlin," Wu said.
Regarding the president's second proposal, Wu also said that he would be more than happy to visit China as long as the visit was in the interests of the Taiwanese people.
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