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Updated Friday, November 7, 2008 11:30 am TWN, By David Young,The China Post

President Ma meets Chen Yunlin

Over the past two days, Ma went on, the SEF negotiated with the ARATS without losing any ground on the question of the country’s sovereignty. The negotiations were conducted on an equal footing, he added.

“There has been no denigration of any kind,” Ma asserted.

All four agreements were signed as a follow-up to what the previous DPP administration had done, Ma went on. “The Kuomintang government just wrapped up the deals,” he said.

The reason the current administration could strike such deals is that it accepts the consensus of 1992 as sine qua non for dialogue between Taiwan and China. The previous administration equated the tacit agreement on “one China with a different interpretation” with Taiwan’s total surrender to the People’s Republic of China.

“But please remember,” Ma said, “that agreement was reached while President Lee Teng-hui was in office.” Lee, the godfather of Taiwan independence, is the spiritual leader of the DPP’s ally Taiwan Solidarity Union.

“At any rate,” President Ma pointed out, “the Republic of China is an independent, sovereign state which has existed for 97 years. That is the fact nobody can change!”

The Ma-Chen meeting had to be rescheduled earlier after Chen and his ARATS delegation were all but mobbed at the Grand Formosa Regent Hotel, where Wu Po-hsiung, chairman of the Kuomintang, honored them at dinner Wednesday evening.

Hundreds of roused DPP supporters laid siege to the hotel, where Chen and his delegates were bottled up for eight hours.

The mob clashed with police. There was bloodshed. A Chinese TV anchorwoman and her reporter were attacked. Many were injured, some of them police guards.

Finally, riot police were sent to clear the way for Chen and his delegatation to leave the Grand Formosa Regent. They arrived back to the Grand Hotel in Taipei shortly after 2:00 a.m. yesterday.

The president decided to move up his meeting with Chen to save police more trouble yesterday. DPP Chairwoman Tsai was granted an assembly of protesters in part of the heart of the capital city near the Taipei Guest House from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Protesters couldn’t get into place in time to remonstrate against Ma’s pro-China policy.

Chen and the ARATS delegation are scheduled to wind up their four-day visit and leave for Beijing today.

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	Two foreign visitors play a skit in front of riot police. The pair tried to have fun and have their picture taken yesterday. (CNA) More Photos (5)


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