The New York Times > International > Asia Pacific > May 4, 2005
China Raises Hurdle to Taiwan Negotiations
By JOSEPH KAHN
BEIJING, May 3 - Chinese officials said Tuesday that Taiwan's governing party must scrap its party platform and stop its "separatist activities" before Beijing would talk with President Chen Shui-bian, dashing hopes that the recent thaw in relations would lead to two-way negotiations soon.
The conditions, spelled out by Wang Zaixi, deputy head of the Communist Party's Taiwan affairs office, may signal that China is content for now to talk with Taiwan's opposition parties, which favor closer ties with the mainland, while isolating the governing party.
If that position sticks, it could come as a blow to Mr. Chen. The Taiwan president has struggled to develop his own strategy to communicate with Beijing after his archrival, Lien Chan, head of the opposition Nationalist Party, generated enormous publicity during his eight-day visit to the mainland, which ended Tuesday.
The United States, Taiwan's sole major ally, has urged Beijing to open direct talks with Mr. Chen. The State Department has argued that government-to-government dialogue is the only way to reduce cross-strait tensions and mitigate the threat of armed conflict, which could involve American forces.
Last week, Hu Jintao, the Chinese Communist Party chief, held talks with Mr. Lien, the first meeting between a Communist and a Nationalist leader in 60 years. Mr. Hu also plans to meet James Soong, who heads the opposition People First Party, in Beijing early next week.
Mr. Lien's visit was the highest-level exchange between Taiwanese and mainland politicians since the Nationalists fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the Chinese civil war. The meeting between Mr. Lien and Mr. Hu on Friday fueled hopes that a broader rapprochement might be in the offing.
In giving the government's first detailed briefing on Taiwan since Mr. Lien's visit, Mr. Wang, the Chinese official, reiterated longstanding demands that Mr. Chen accept the "one China" principle under which Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan, as well as the so-called 1992 consensus, under which China and Taiwan held talks in the past.
Then he added a new condition, specifying that Mr. Chen's ruling Democratic Progressive Party must first rewrite the party's constitution to strip out endorsements of what the party refers to as the island's independent, sovereign status. "For the time being, we have no party-to-party exchanges with the Democratic Progressive Party, for the key reason that its party constitution advocates Taiwan independence," Mr. Wang said. "If the D.P.P. recognizes the 1992 consensus, gives up its party constitution and stops its separatist activities, we would welcome its visit to the mainland, and we can have a dialogue and exchanges."
To meet those conditions, Mr. Chen would need to jettison political positions that formed the basis of his winning campaigns for Taiwan's presidency in 2000 and 2004. If he were to take such a step, his party and its independence-leaning allies in the legislature could be plunged into crisis, analysts said.
"My impression is that Beijing basically has no intention of opening a dialogue with Chen or the D.P.P.," said Andrew Yang, secretary general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, a research center in Taipei.
Mr. Yang said that Chinese officials may feel they have some political momentum and are under no pressure to initiate talks with Mr. Chen immediately, perhaps not at all during his three remaining years as president.
Beijing has long viewed Mr. Chen as determined to lead Taiwan toward formal, legal independence from mainland China, which Beijing says it would use force to prevent. Officials have dismissed Mr. Chen's calls to improve relations as empty gestures, a situation that may be worsened by Mr. Chen's frequent shifts in tactics in dealing with Beijing. "They are laying out crystal clear conditions for Chen to meet," Mr. Yang said. "They can just wait and see if he comes around."
Despite the tough conditions, Beijing has carried on with its Taiwan détente. On Tuesday, officials announced that they would give a pair of giant pandas to Taiwan, a gift reminiscent of China's courtship of the United States in the 1970's.
Beijing said it would unilaterally reduce import taxes on Taiwanese fruit, an effort to cultivate good relations with farmers in Taiwan's southern heartland. Officials also said they would ease restrictions on mainland tourists to Taiwan.
Visiting the small Pacific island of Kiribati on Tuesday, Mr. Chen invited Mr. Hu to visit Taiwan and said he hoped to open talks with Beijing under the principle of "peace, democracy and parity."
Mr. Chen also said that he had entrusted Mr. Soong, with whom he has a political alliance despite widely differing views about cross-strait relations, to relay a "secret message" to Beijing leaders during his trip later this week. But Beijing's latest statement may diminish the prospects that it will use Mr. Soong as a conduit for dialogue with Mr. Chen.
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