Taiwan sounds out peace talks with China

By Alice Hung

October 11, 2004

A marching band performs at the National Day celebrations in Taipei, where Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian said he wanted to end hostility with China.
Photo: AP

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has called for peace talks with China to prevent an outbreak of conflict in the narrow strait dividing them.

The Taiwan Strait has become one of Asia's most dangerous flashpoints since Mr Chen's re-election in March.

China is convinced Mr Chen will push the island it sees as a rebel province towards formal statehood in his second four-year term - a move that Beijing has said would lead to war.

In a conciliatory move, Mr Chen used his National Day speech yesterday to say his Government was willing to return to the negotiating table based on a 1992 understanding over interpretation of Beijing's cherished "one China" principle.

"In the long-term, both sides should formally end the state of hostility across the Taiwan Strait and establish confidence-building measures through consultations and dialogues," Mr Chen said.

Mr Chen had long said the speech would contain a peace overture, and he took the opportunity to propose the resumption of talks with Beijing that have been frozen since 1999, by saying he was ready to return to dialogue on the principles first agreed at a meeting in Hong Kong in 1992.

A consensus in 1992 in which each side agreed to hold its own interpretation of the "one China" principle paved the way for historic negotiations in Singapore between Taipei and Beijing.

Since a 1949 civil war split, China has regarded the self-ruled island as a province that must be returned to the fold - by force if necessary.

Mr Chen's Government had previously said both sides "agreed to disagree" in 1992 and avoid any reference of the "one China" principle.

However, talks broke down in 1999 when then president Lee Teng-hui redefined ties as between "special state to state", angering China by raising the prospect of an independent Taiwan.

But Mr Chen has appeared to opt for a conciliatory tone.

"The Republic of China and the People's Republic of China - or Taiwan and China - can seek to establish political relations in any form whatsoever," he said.

"We would not exclude any possibility, so long as there is the consent of the 23 million people of Taiwan," Mr Chen said in his closely watched speech.

Mr Chen said both sides should seriously consider arms control and take concrete actions to reduce tension including a code of conduct to ensure peace.

The October 10 "Double-Tenth" national day marks the founding of the Republic of China after the Qing dynasty fell in 1911.

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian.

The government of the republic, the Nationalist Party, fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war to the communists in 1949.

Mr Chen swept to power in 2000, ending more than half a century of one-party Nationalist rule on the island.

- Reuters

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