ROC REJECTS TO RETRACT STATE-TO-STATE STATEMENT
Auckland, Sept 12 (CNA) The Republic of China on Sunday rejected
mainland China's demand to retract "a special state-to-state"
statement made by President Lee Teng-hui and instead called on
Beijing to recognize the reality of the existence of Taiwan.
In response to a demand by mainland China that Beijing would only
agree to exchange visits of the leaders from both sides of the Taiwan
Strait if the statement was retracted, Dr. P.K. Chiang, who
represents President Lee at the APEC leaders' summit in Auckland,
said the statement "is not a two-state theory," it is the statement
of the reality which is intended to establish the relations between
the two sides so that in future talks or dialogues, Taiwan can
negotiate with mainland China on an equal footing.
"The statement is not created without any basis. It is not a slogan. A
slogan can be retracted. But it's a statement of reality. Therefore, it can
not be changed," Chiang told a press conference.
Chiang said: "The fact that we do have a state-to-state relations with
China is widely recognized."
"So I think for any breakthrough in our relations to occur between our
cross strait relations, it's for mainland China to recognize the fact," he
said.
He said if mainland China recognizes that, it is easier to conduct
cross-strait talks or dialogues. "This is the basis in our future
bilateral talks," he added.
He said the purpose of the dialogue is to seek eventual
reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. However,
mainland China sets conditions with the threat of using its military
force against Taiwan.
"This will not be accepted by the 22 million people in Taiwan," he said.
He said he agreed U.S. President Bill Clinton's statement during his talks
with President Jiang Zemin that both sides of the Taiwan Straits should
conduct dialogues and the Taiwan issue should be resolved peacefully.
Touching on the accession to the World Trade Organization, Chiang said he
hoped that Taiwan could be admitted to the global body by the end of this
year because Chinese Taipei has been conducting negotiations for the
accession into the WTO for about 10 years.
(By Peter Chen)
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