Taipei, June 20 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian on Tuesday extended another olive branch to mainland China in an effort to bring about a breakthrough in stalled cross-strait relations.
Chen, speaking at his first presidential press conference exactly one month after his inauguration, invited Mainland China President Jiang Zemin to meet with him at any time or place, without setting any preconditions.
Taking a cue from last week's historic summit meeting between the rulers of the two Koreas, Chen said he believed that leaders on both sides of the Taiwan Strait could "rewrite and create history," by exercising wisdom and creativity.
He urged Jiang to forego any preconditions to talks, and start from a "historic handshake," so that the two sides can sit down and reconcile their differences.
He said that a photograph of President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea and Kim Jong Il of North Korea stepping forward to shake each other's hands on June 13 is now hanging in his study, adding that the picture has been an inspiration to him.
"If the two Koreans can, why can't we?" he asked, adding that leaders across the Taiwan Strait possess similar wisdom and creativity, and could also rewrite history. He added that he was sincere in extending an invitation to Jiang for such a "historical handshake."
He also said that not setting any preconditions to talks would be in tune with public expectations on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, as long as leaders aim to make the utmost contribution to their people.
Stressing that "we are now in an era of reconciliation," he said that he will promote goodwill, mutual cooperation and permanent peace for both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
He said that as long as both sides of the strait can display goodwill and sincerity in talks, he believed that they could come up with a definition of "one China" that would be acceptable to both sides.
He noted that as long as the two sides are allowed to maintain their different points of view while seeking a consensus, he is "confident that we can jointly deal with the question of a future 'one China' based on the existing foundation," by which he meant conclusions and agreements reached in past negotiations between the two officially-authorized intermediary bodies.
On Beijing's claim that both sides in 1992 reached a consensus on its cherished "one China" principle, Chen said that Taipei's Straits Exchange Foundation and Beijing's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait did discuss the "one China" issue, but didn't agree on its definition.
If there was any agreement, that would be "to agree to disagree" on the issue, Chen said.
He said that throughout the period since the March 18 presidential election to the present, he has conveyed goodwill and sincerity, including in his May 20 inaugural address. He said his gestures were part of an attempt to make a "historic stride" in relations across the Taiwan Strait.
Chen urged Beijing leaders to respect Taiwan's freedom to choose, adding that the two sides should pool their wisdom and creativity to create conditions conducive to cross-strait cooperation under the principle of equality and democracy.
Touching on the possible future path of cross-strait relations, Chen said that he had no preset stance, but that a "confederation" between the two sides is one option for possible consideration.
Chen added that settling the issue is not up to him or any one political party, but rather the 23 million people on Taiwan.
He said that there was no need to have preconditions for talks, citing the Korean summit as an example since the two sides were able to sit down together despite starkly different views on the unification of the Korean peninsula.
Cross-strait relations were strained after former President Lee Teng-hui spoke of a "special state-to-state" basis for talks in July 1999. The election of Chen, who is a member of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, has further chilled cross-strait ties. (By Lilian Wu)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
