New Maxim From Beijing, '2 Sides of Strait,' Is Met With a Yawn From Taiwan's President
By Jim Yardley and Chris Buckley, New York Times
May 13, 2005
President Hu Jintao of China met Thursday with the head of a Taiwan opposition party and agreed to a new, slightly altered linguistic framework as a potential vehicle for starting negotiations with Taiwan's government.
But President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan, responding in a television interview, criticized the proposal Thursday night. ''China has not compromised at all,'' Mr. Chen told Formosa Television. ''It offered nothing new.''
The proposal, included in a joint communiqué by Mr. Hu and James Soong, leader of the People First Party, called for both sides to embrace a principle of ''two sides of the strait, one China'' as a new framework to break the political stalemate and start formal talks.
Mr. Soong, whose party favors closer relations with China, was not representing Taiwan's government. ''It's up to the governing party to decide if it can accept, and meet, on these terms,'' Mr. Soong said at a news conference after his afternoon meeting with Mr. Hu.
The proposal is the latest piece of a new strategy by China that appears intended to court public opinion in Taiwan and isolate President Chen by meeting with his opponents. President Hu recently had a visit from Taiwan's main opposition leader, Lien Chan of the Nationalist Party. The meetings are roiling domestic politics in Taiwan, where elections will be held Saturday for the National Assembly, which decides constitutional issues.
Mr. Soong's meeting with Mr. Hu was much anticipated because he was regarded as a potential intermediary to Mr. Chen, despite their different views toward the mainland.
In February he joined Mr. Chen in issuing a 10-point statement of shared principles for negotiating with the mainland. He was expected to sound out Mr. Hu on new ways to break the impasse between China and Mr. Chen's government. Some reports in Taiwan, later denied, even suggested that he would carry a secret message from Mr. Chen.
Mr. Soong made no mention of a message at his news conference and instead announced a package of proposals, including direct flights, offered by China if Taiwan agreed to terms for broader negotiations. Mr. Lien was given a similar laundry list of incentives.
The new language announced Thursday is a tweak of the ''one China'' framework that in 1992 served as the basis for the last official effort at reconciliation. In that effort, the two sides agreed to a ''one China'' principle even as they also agreed that they would have different interpretations of the phrase.
It was a deliberate ambiguity that succeeded in getting the two governments from opposite sides of the Taiwan Strait to the negotiating table, though the talks ultimately failed.
Mr. Soong suggested that the new wording might provide a new ambiguity that would allow both sides to move beyond recriminations and start talking again. ''In fact, it is the 1992 consensus,'' Mr. Soong said. ''But now we are using 'two sides of the strait, one China,' so there is no need to haggle over past wording.''
Mr. Chen and his Democratic Progressive Party have long rejected the ''one China'' framework as a basis for new talks and have generally favored formally separating Taiwan from the mainland.
Philip Yang, a political scientist at National Taiwan University, described the new proposal ''a status quo position'' and doubted that Mr. Chen would agree to it. ''Accepting one China even in this form would be too far,'' Mr. Yang said. ''He'd have to deny the Taiwan independence clause in his own party's platform.''
Before releasing their communiqué, Mr. Hu and Mr. Soong appeared on Chinese television without mentioning the proposal. In fact, Mr. Hu's comments during that appearance suggest that the new phrasing does not represent any fundamental shift by China. He pointedly said China would agree to diplomatic talks but only if Taiwan agreed not to move toward independence and that the democratic, self-ruled island must acknowledge that it belongs to ''one China.''
''We will work with any party regardless of what was said or done in the past, as long as the party recognized the 'one China' policy,'' he said.
Mr. Yang, the political analyst, said Mr. Hu's comments reflected the studied ambiguity on both sides. ''When you face your own audience you stick to your own interpretation,'' Mr. Yang said.
Mr. Soong's visit lacked the historical gravitas of Mr. Lien's trip, which was the first formal reconciliation between the sides that fought China's civil war six decades ago. Mr. Soong arrived in China last Thursday and has traveled around the country, including a visit to his birthplace in southern China.
At every stop he has repeated his opposition to Taiwanese independence and emphasized the need for cooperation. China has treated him more like a visiting head of state than the head of a political party that fared poorly in parliamentary elections last year, winning only 15 percent of the vote.
Mr. Hu described his meeting with Mr. Soong as ''a major event.'' His speeches across the country have gotten glowing, prominent news coverage, and he has met with an array of Chinese leaders, including a meeting on Wednesday with Vice President Zeng Qinghong.
In greeting Mr. Hu on Thursday, Mr. Soong said he hoped ''from now on to establish with the Chinese Communist Party a long-term and important communications channel in order to promote cross-strait relations and resolve unnecessary misunderstandings.''
The communiqué also included an ominous note that China would never rule out military conflict unless Taiwan emphatically renounced any possible developments toward independence.