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Varied channels of cross-strait dialogue benefit Taiwan: premier

ROC Central News Agency

2008-05-30 19:41:43

    Taipei, May 30 (CNA) Having a variety of negotiation channels between Taiwan and China, either through the government or the private sector, will be beneficial to Taiwan's national interests, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan said Friday.

    Liu made the remarks while answering questions from opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Ker Chien-ming about how cross-Taiwan Strait negotiations will be conducted by the new administration.

    Currently, ruling Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung is visiting China and earlier this week held a summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

    Some DPP lawmakers have complained that political parties should not be entering into negotiations with China on behalf of the government, warning of a possible lack of transparency.

    Wu met Hu Wednesday in Beijing. The leaders of Taiwan and China's ruling parties agreed to implement direct weekend cross-strait charter flights and open Taiwan to more Chinese tourists in the shortest possible time through bilateral, systematic talks which have been stalled for some 10 years.

    The quasi-official Taipei-based Taiwan Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and Beijing-based the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), meanwhile, are set to resume talks in June on the two issues following a decision made during the Wu-Hu summit.

    According to Liu, cross-strait negotiation channels, either in the private or government sector, should be complementary rather than conflicting.

    Non-governmental cross-strait negotiations, if well tracked by the Legislative Yuan and adequately handled in line with the government system, will help create a greater revolving room for both sides and provide better guarantees for Taiwan's national interests, the premier said.

    KMT-CPC exchanges, which took place ahead of cross-strait interaction through the SEF-ARATS channel in recent weeks, will eventually return to the government's policy framework, guided by national security authorities and the president, Liu added.

    The SEF and ARATS are responsible for two-way negotiations and exchanges in the absence of government-to-government contacts between the two sides after Taiwan split from China in 1949.

    Signs of an improvement in cross-strait ties have been noticeable after Ma Ying-jeou was elected president on March 22, ending the eight-year rule of the pro-Taiwan independence DPP, which had combative relations with China.

    Traveling at the head of a 16-member KMT delegation, Wu is slated to return to Taiwan Saturday after his six-day, high-profile visit to China -- the first by the head of a ruling party from Taiwan.

(By Flor Wang)

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